The Dark Beat
by Shiuta-san
Summary: Former Shinigami Kurosaki Ichigo is completely thrown when he meets Xcution's newest member Horo, a mysterious girl with a serious attitude problem who appeared in town out of nowhere. Could she really be the key to recovering his lost powers? IchigoxOC
1. Chapter 1: Strawberries Don't Scowl

...

* * *

><p>"<em>Hide away all the things you want from everybody else and they become yours."<em>

_-Riruka Dokugamine_

* * *

><p>"Ichigo..." My voice came out raspy and echoed, like I was speaking through some sort of weirdly warped intercom system.<p>

Ichigo simply continued to focus on his Substitute Shinigami badge, not caring that the more he allowed the dark energy to surround it, the more pain I felt. It was a pain that I couldn't even begin to define or explain- It was pain without reason.

"Just a little more," he said through his teeth, growling under the strain of producing his Fullbring for the first time. He couldn't even begin to grasp just how dangerous this was- It was only me and him, together, no other Fullbringers to protect him from himself. To protect _me_ from himself.

"Ichigo-"

"I've almost got it!" he persisted. His eyebrows knit together in concentration as the four prongs of dark energy elongated, fading in an out like a dying lightbulb as the energy struggled to surround its host. It almost resembled a Swastika, but I didn't have very much time to ponder such things. "I got it, Horo." he said at last, breathing in a sigh of relief as the black energy continued to grow. "I got-"

"Ichigo, stop it!"

And then my body disappeared all together, along with my voice, though I could still hear it carry over the rooftops of Karakura Town.

How the hell had it come to this?

**_[... weeks previously... ]_**

The sun was shining, the air was warm, the sky was cloudless... And everything was stupid.

Currently, I was sitting on a small hospital bed in the back of a clinic. The stark white sheets on which I now sat crumpled rather loudly, which made me all the more uncomfortable when shifting positions. That wasn't too much of a problem, though, considering that two enormous cuts ran down almost the entirety of my right arm, causing me to feel a shitload of pain whenever I decided to move. My eyes raked over the wound angrily, and I silently willed it to just go away and be healed already so that I could get out of here. Unfortunately, I was not blessed with the power of spontaneous healing capabilities. So, basically, I was shit out of luck.

How, exactly, had I gotten into this situation? Simple, really. For whatever reason, this town was absolutely crawling with Hollows. I wasn't too sure what that said about Karakura Town- Maybe it was some sort of weird reservoir of some seriously intense spiritual energy. Who knew? All speculations aside, the fact remained that I was now living in a hotbed for some serious spiritual activity; Hollows included. It wasn't odd for them to be drawn here- If I really thought about it, it made sense. What I didn't understand was how the people who lived here continued to do so as peacefully and carefree as they did. Since I had arrived in Karakura Town, I'd seen no evidence to suggest that there was someone out there able to destroy these things. I sighed.

That being said, I had spent the majority of my time here job hunting and kicking some serious Hollow ass. Or, at least trying to, as the case may have been. I stared bitterly at my mangled arm once more- Damn those bitter spirits and their hunger for souls.

"Good morning!" A ridiculously jovial voice broke through my flustered thoughts.

"Oh, yeah?" I muttered, sitting up with a wince as pain shot through my arm with every small movement I made. "Who says?"

The man who had spoken chuckled to himself, his shoulders bobbing up and down as he shook his head amusedly at my less than upbeat attitude. His eyes raked over his clipboard, and he tapped his chin thoughtfully with his pen as he looked at the form that I had hastily scribbled with my left hand upon my arrival at four thirty that very morning. It had been much too early to have been business hours, and I was fairly certain that I had woken up both him and his family, but that certainly hadn't stopped him from taking me in once he saw my bleeding arm. Through the walls of the clinic I could hear his children cooking themselves breakfast, despite the fact that it was only five now and they didn't have to go to school for at least another hour and a half. I'd say that I felt guilty, but the throbbing pains in my arm canceled out any contrition that I may have felt had the situation been more normal.

"Well, Miss... Shirosaki," As he spoke my name his eyebrows knitted together in interest. "... Do you mind telling me how you hurt your arm?"

"I broke into a zoo," I stated blatantly, not blinking as I said it.

Perhaps being a compulsive liar wasn't one of my better qualities, but for me it always was rather enjoyable. People quickly began to question whether I was telling the truth or lying and, consequentially, they could become very flustered. The whole process was pretty entertaining, despite what people said about lying being wrong. The doctor simply laughed, scribbling something on my intake form before continuing.

"Is that so?" he replied. Something about his tone of voice told me that he knew that something was up- And I don't mean that he knew I was lying. "Was that a dare?"

"Sure." I said, sensing that he was now humoring me. It was as if he knew exactly what I had been doing an hour or so prior to my appearing on the doorstep of Kurosaki Clinic- But there was no way this guy could know about Hollows... "The bastards owe me twenty bucks," He laughed yet again, setting down his clipboard on my bedside table and pulling up a stool.

"I'm afraid that won't cover the cost of fixing up this arm,"

"Bummer."

I winced as he disinfected the scratches. I bit my lip, doing my best to hold in any noises that may have indicated my discomfort, even as he began the stitches. I sighed tiredly, knowing that I'd need quite a few- These weren't little cat scratches, after all. They were marks left by one seriously pissed off Hollow.

It hadn't been a particularly strong one- I was used to fighting off Hollows, especially since I had been in this town for almost a week, now. Since my arrival, I'd encountered almost too many Hollows to list, but nothing out of the ordinary. This morning's Hollow had been no different- Just a dumb, hungry animal out looking for something to snack on. And to be totally honest, I'd had it completely under control- That is, until its friend or its kid or its _whatever_ had shown up and distracted me. And I'd paid the price with a hefty slice to my right arm.

I pursed my lips, once again holding back a small 'eep' of discomfort as the doctor cut through the end of the thread that was now holding my skin together. After setting down his needles and scissors, he cracked his knuckles, leaning back to admire his handiwork before checking off a few more boxes on my intake forms. I opened my mouth to say thank you and be on my way, but before I could get so much as a word out a boy about my age waltzed into the room, looking as tired as he was grouchy.

"Dad," he yawned, stretching his arms over his head as he spoke. "There's breakfast on the- Oh, my bad, I thought you'd left already."

He was tall- Almost a good foot or so taller than I was, by the looks of things. His hair was the most ridiculous orange color that I had ever seen in my life, though it seemed to fit with his lithe and muscled body just fine. I had to admit, he was a fairly good-looking guy, but I sure as hell wasn't about to give him the satisfaction of letting him know it. I stared him straight in the eyes, which were a warm hazel color; I had meant it as a gesture to show him that he wasn't at all unordinary, but it failed miserably when I felt my cheeks start to heat up when he didn't look away as I had expected, and instead met my gaze head on. I averted my eyes quickly.

"What's up with you?" he muttered, running his fingers through his hair. I frowned. Was it really any of his business?

"I was cow tipping and I cut myself on some barbed wire," I replied, even though he shouldn't really have been asking in the first place. "Last time I'm visiting a farm."

"... Do we even have cows around here?"

"I thought you said you broke into a zoo?"

It was all I could do to keep from busting out laughing right then and there. They certainly were an odd father-son duo, and I had to say that the two looked absolutely nothing alike. The father was heavily built, whereas the son was tall and thin, though no less muscular. I averted my eyes from him quickly once again, earning myself a strange sort of glower from the orange haired boy.

"Why don't you offer some breakfast to our guest?" the doctor said suddenly. Me and the boy now wore identical masks of disbelief. "She's been through quite an ordeal- A break in to a zoo _and_ cow tipping all in one night!"

"I don't think-"

"She's not a guest, she's a patient." Ichigo replied crassly, glaring at his father, who pouted. I made a face- That was the first time I'd ever seen a grown man _pout._

"Ichigo, my son, don't be so cruel!"

I couldn't help it- I laughed. Not only was this doctor without a doubt the most ridiculous doctor that I had ever met in my whole life, but he had actually gone and named his only son_ Ichigo_, of all things. If my memory served me correctly, Ichigo meant strawberry, and I don't think I'd ever seen a "strawberry" scowl so much in my entire life.

"What's so funny?" Ichigo muttered, folding his arms across his chest and glaring at me.

"Nothing, I just think your name suits you _really_ well," I replied mockingly. Ichigo's scowl deepened as his father muttered something about hormonal teenagers and mood swings.

"Oh yeah?" he snapped back, picking up my charts from the bedside table as he spoke. "Well, so does yours..."

"Horo." I said, finishing his sentence. "Shirosaki Horo."

Ichigo made a face, double checking my charts as if to make sure that I was telling the truth. Not that I blamed him- Clearly he'd already picked up on the fact that I had a terrible habit of lying through my teeth. As his eyes continued to roam over my charts I stood up from the bed, picking up my now ruined jacket that lay on top of the sheets before making my way around Ichigo as his father handed me a bill in an envelope.

"Buh-bye," I chirped as Ichigo turned around, eyeing me strangely as I exited the clinic. "Berry Boy."

The doors slid shut behind me, leaving a scowling Ichigo and a very whiny Mr. Kurosaki behind me as I continued walking. I sniffed the air, looking upwards towards the now bright morning sky as I headed in the direction of my apartment complex. It smelled like Hollows, but I didn't really have much time to think about it. After all, I was starting school today, and by the looks of things, I was already going to be late.

* * *

><p>I was standing in the middle of the street, my eyes fixed on the enormous monster in front of me. Had the thing been human, I was sure that we would have at least been exchanging witty banter of some sort to keep me occupied while it sized me up. Of course, being an oozing Hollow, we did no such thing. I sighed heavily, frowning deeply as the monster continued to assess the situation to the best of its ability.<p>

The Hollow roared maliciously, finally seeming to have made up its mind to fight instead of flee. Focussing my still tired eyes on the masked monster in front of me, I waited with baited breath as the worm-like creature drew closer. _A little bit closer..._ I thought to myself, steeling my legs for any unexpected impact. The pain in my arm had slowly subsided since earlier that morning, though it still stung horribly every time I made a sudden movement. The Hollow drew closer, squealing maliciously as it waved its tentacle like arms hungrily in my direction.

"Sorry, ugly," I muttered to myself, balling my hands into fists, exposing the twin cross knuckle tattoos that adorned the middle fingers of my right and left hands. "You're not getting my soul."

No sooner had I said this, a bright blue arrow went whizzing past my ear much too close for comfort. I flinched, watching as a tendril of my dark, wavy hair fell the ground. The arrow missed the Hollow by mere centimeters. The creature growled angrily, looking for the owner of the arrow, who had just distracted him from eating me. Mimicking the Hollow's actions I, too, glanced around for the source of the attack; Whoever it was, they needed a serious lesson in aiming their weapon. I stared bitterly at my lost hair, which now law scattered on the ground, and made a mental note to yell at whoever it was when, if ever, I figured out who they were.

"Get away from the girl," said a voice, and my eyes narrowed curiously. It was a man's voice. "Hollow."

The monster screamed angrily, ducking as yet another arrow went shooting past the two of us. I glowered- Apparently, I had been wrong about this town having no protectors. Not that it made this mystery person any less of an obnoxious prick; Clearly, I was still bitter about the loss of some of my precious hair.

I followed the Hollow's gaze as it roared in the direction of the voice, and I scowled as my eyes landed on a tall boy with dark hair and glasses. His expression was serious, his hard eyes peering over his glasses to stare at the two of us as he pulled by the string of his bow for another shot. It wasn't like any sort of bow _I'd_ ever seen before- In fact, it looked pretty much like something straight out of a really bad video game. Another second passed and the bow released his arrow, this time hitting his mark, and the Hollow vanished with a scream as it shattered into a thousand bloody pieces. The boy paused and his bow vanished.

"You should leave," he said calmly. I rolled my eyes. Whoever this guy was, he certainly enjoyed playing the hero-type.

Another scream drew both our attention as another Hollow sprung up to my left- Before my 'savior' had any time to rematerialize that special bow of his, I had crossed my fists in front of me, once again baring my tattoos to my new opponent. I smirked, imagining the archer's surprised expression as my familiar dark energy surrounded my body. An enormous crackling noise, almost like the sound of burning wood, filled my ears then as the dark energy subsided, leaving me standing in the exact place that I had been.

The two cross tattoos on my fingers were now devoid of ink, only the outline remaining, and I now held in my hands a matching pair of black and silver pistols. Chains attached to the pistols extended up my arms before becoming enveloped with in the cloak of dark energy that now covered my body. My fists were still crossed over one another, my pistols turned on their sides and pointed straight at the advancing Hollow.

"... _Bang,_"

With an earsplitting pop I pulled the triggers. My body was forced backwards with the force of the shot, but I managed to steady myself before I could fall back too far. The little dark bullets went spiraling through the air, unraveling themselves as they went. By the time they reached the Hollow, they had turned into a single, enormous mass of dark energy, cutting through the Hollow's mask and running down its middle, cutting the unlucky bastard clean in half. The creatures final scream still hung in the air, and I watched as the Hollow's body slowly disintegrated, releasing the tortured soul within as it finally crossed over.

My dark energy vanished with a _whoosh_, leaving me looking perfectly normal once again. The dark haired boy behind me was now looking over curiously, as if the harder he looked the more he would understand.

"You're welcome," I said stiffly, flexing my now stiff fingers, which popped as their joints were loosened once more. I had been using my powers more than usual since I had arrived in this town, and I was now realizing that it was slowly beginning to take a toll on my body.

The boy stiffened, pushing his glasses farther up the bridge of his nose, but he made no move to leave. Instead he continued to stare at me calculatingly, a look that I did not care for in the slightest. Just who was this guy, and why did he think it was cool to stare at me so much?

"I had it under control," he said at last. I snorted in response.

"Right," I replied. As I spoke I uncoiled my wavy raven locks from the tie that held it, shaking them behind me before putting them up into my usual low bun once again. "By the way, you owe me a chunk of hair."

"Excuse me?"

"You heard me, mystery man," I continued, but even as I spoke I turned on my heel to leave. I had no intentions to stay and chat with the weird guy who had just sliced through my precious hair, and frankly, he was pretty weird, even if something about him did seem oddly familiar in an unsettling sort of way. I faintly heard him mutter something to himself, but I couldn't quite make out the words, so I ignored him instead. It seemed that I was encountering more people than usual today, and to top it all off, they were some of the strangest people I'd ever met.

Karakura High wasn't too far off from where I had had my fight with the Hollow, and I soon found myself staring up at the concrete jungle of a school in awe. Judging by the size of the town itself, I had been expecting something much smaller. Clearly, I had been mistaken. Steeling myself for even more human contact than I had already had that day, I marched headlong into the school, careful to keep my expression from revealing just how uncomfortable I was around so many people.

I stared at the small slip of paper in my hands, carefully keeping my gaze away from the prying eyes around me as I walked to my classroom. It wasn't hard to find, which was a relief. Taking a deep breath, I slid open the door as slowly as possible, peering in through the small opening I had made to observe the classroom before I made my entrance. It was full to the brim with people- People with which I had little if any desire to associate myself with. However, I had already resigned myself to not skip out on my first day, and I soon found myself standing in front of the entire class, the teacher announcing that we had a new student.

I wrote my name out carefully on the chalkboard, feeling uncomfortably self conscious as the teacher asked the class to be nice to me since I was new. I often wondered if teacher's actually thought that such a tactic helped new students make friends- My guess was that it never did, but they insisted on doing it all the same. Finally having finished writing my name, I set the chalk down and turned to face the class.

"My name is Shirosaki Horo," I stated boldly, and possibly a little louder than necessary. "Please take-"

"You!"

I flinched, my eyes finding the source of the exclamation before gasping. It was that same orange haired boy from that morning- It was Kurosaki Ichigo. My dark chocolate brown eyes narrowed suspiciously as I met his surprised gaze head on.

"_You,_" I breathed, both of our expressions now looking equally as displeased as the other's.

This was just my luck.

* * *

><p><strong>More will come soon, assuming that this chapter does fairly well. Please let me know what you think- Critique is more than welcome!<strong>

**The idea for this story came to me after I decided to reread the current Bleach arc from the beginning- When I first read the Fullbring Arc, I didn't much care for the arc itself, much less its characters. But when I went back for a second try, they grew on me. I think the reason lots of people don't like it is because the manga has pretty much turned into one ridiculously short chapter after another where they basically talk for a few panels and then fight. But the characters themselves and the idea in general are actually pretty interesting and well thought out, I think, so I thought I'd try my hand at writing a fic that focusses on this arc.**

**Please let me know what you think!**


	2. Chapter 2: Nice to Meet You

...

* * *

><p>"<em>This power of mine seems to be less like a Shinigami or a Quincy and more like you Hollows.<em>_"_

_-Sado Yasutora_

* * *

><p>I stared straight ahead, determined to look anywhere but at Kurosaki Ichigo, who was sitting right beside me. Really, I felt like I shouldn't have been at all surprised that I had been thrown into such an awkward situation. It was so typical it wasn't even funny. Of <em>course<em> the guy who I'd badmouthed in his dad's clinic would be in my class. Not only did I now own his dad quite a bit of money, but I had blatantly made fun of his name right in front of him thinking that I would never see him again, ever. Classic.

A tap on my shoulder drew me out of my silent musings, and I turned around to come face to face with a very curious looking girl. Her big brown eyes were mere inches from my own, and I had to say, she had the largest pair of breasts that I had ever seen in my whole life. Her walnut colored hair was much longer than mine, reaching halfway down her back. She smiled brightly, holding up her hand to wave at me as if there was any possible way that I couldn't have seen her.

"Hello!" she greeted jubilantly, her voice much too loud for speaking in the middle of class. "I'm Inoue Orihime,"

I nodded slowly, still feeling completely thrown by meeting her in the first place. Her upbeat and welcoming personality clashed with Ichigo's waves of hostility in a big way, and I soon found myself wondering if they were at all acquainted. To top it all off, I could feel a strange Reiatsu flowing off of her- It was strong, like perfume, but oddly comforting all the same. A hand waved in front of my eyes frantically, bringing me back to the present situation.

"Shirosaki-san?" she said, her voice sounding concerned. "Are you alright, Shirosaki-san?"

"Sorry," I muttered, rubbing my temples for a moment before speaking. "Yeah, I'm fine. You can just call me Horo, you know." I told her. She smiled brightly in reply, nodding enthusiastically as the teacher droned on about Quadratic Equations in front of us on the blackboard.

"Horo-san," she repeated, smiling thoughtfully as the words rolled off of her tongue. "That's an interesting name." I laughed.

"Thanks. My parents got it off the back of a truck," I lied easily, enjoying her surprised expression as she absorbed this new information. From my right I heard Ichigo snort loudly, and I shot a glare in his direction.

"She's lying, Inoue," he muttered, looking over his shoulder to look at the girl behind me.

"Now what makes you think that, Berry-Boy?" I asked, batting my eyes innocently. He rolled his eyes.

"Cow tipping? Zoo break ins?" he said, holding up fingers as he counted the lies I'd told. "Does anybody ever actually believe those stories?" I shrugged.

"Your dad sure did," This earned me a particularly nasty glare from Ichigo, though he didn't reply.

Orihime's head was snapping back and forth between the two of us as we bickered, her brown eyes watching curiously as our exchange continued. At last she spoke, her eyes filled with curiosity as she tugged on my sleeve. I leaned back, resting my elbow on her desk as she spoke.

"Do you and Kurosaki-kun know each other?" she asked, and I made a face. How had us shouting 'you!' at each other at the beginning of class not been a dead giveaway to the answer to that question?

"Yeah, we met this morning," I said, answering despite the sheer ridiculousness of the question. Orihime beamed, reaching across the isle and pulling on Ichigo's sleeve excitedly.

"Kurosaki-kun, why didn't you say anything?" she asked, smiling brightly at the scowling carrot top.

"... I think I did," he replied tiredly. Apparently he, too, failed to see how she had missed our rather loud exchange at the beginning of class. "Inoue, you were here during homeroom, weren't you?" Orihime blinked slowly, as if she had to think very seriously about the answer to this question.

"Yeah, I was!" she answered finally. "But I was thinking about what I was going to have for dinner," she confessed, her cheeks flushing a light pink as Ichigo's frown deepened. I had to laugh a little at this- Orihime was like an open book written in an enormous font; Very, very easy to read. "I bought red bean paste and jell-o at the store last night."

For a moment I failed to see how this at all correlated with the conversation. Exchanging glances with Ichigo, my face fell as he nodded gravely. Clearly, red bean paste and jell-o were part of a balanced dinner in Inoue Orihime's mind. The oblivious girl continued to smile at me bright nonetheless, and soon I just decided to let it go. No use breaking the news to her now- Clearly, she'd been eating this way for a long time.

"Hey, hey, Horo-san," Orihime piped up again, her smile growing as she spoke. "Are you new in town, or did you transfer from another school?"

"Town, actually." I replied. "I hitch-hiked here."

"Lies." Ichigo said before Orihime could reply. Her face fell, and I glowered in his direction. "I'm calling B-S on that before you get her started." he said. I frowned- He seemed to be catching on quicker than others, and already he was beating me at my own game. I had to admit that I was a little upset- It had never been so easy for someone to figure me out before.

I held up my hands, smiling guiltily. "You caught me," I replied, and Orihime pouted. "I moved here like a normal person."

Ichigo was now watching me carefully from his seat, the lesson in front of us now completely lost on the three of us. I smiled deviously. I had to admit, I was enjoying figuring him out, despite the frustration I felt due to the ease with which he had figured _me_ out. Unlike Orihime, I could not feel much Reiatsu around him... But I did feel _something_. Perhaps it was Reiatsu, but at this point, I couldn't exactly tell. It was just a sort of... Feeling. A feeling that I couldn't quite place.

"Horo-san, where do you live?"

It was Orihime again. I sighed- She certainly was exhaustingly happy. It was endearing, really, but I was quickly discovering that it would probably become quite difficult to conserve energy around her. She was like a little kid- Hyper, upbeat, always asking questions and exploring.

"An apartment complex," I replied. I half expected for Ichigo to say I was lying again, but he said nothing. "It's not too far from here."

"Down the street, on the left, right?" Orihime asked, and my eyes widened.

"... Yeah... How'd you know?" Orihime's eyes brightened at this, and she clapped her hands together in a way that almost reminded me of a seal. I kept the fit of laughter in, however, allowing Orihime to tell me whatever it was she was just dying to say.

"I live there, too!" she exclaimed. "Do you live with your parents?"

"You sure ask a lot of questions," I replied, smothering her eagerness with a single look. I immediately felt guilty, desperately attempting to salvage the situation by answering her question. "But, no, I don't live with my family."

"Oh..." she whispered, meeting my eyes. "Sorry, Horo-san."

"Not a problem," I replied swiftly, waving my hand casually. "I prefer living alone."

The conversation seemed to have taken a sudden turn for the worse, and the three of us had now lapsed into an almost tangible silence. Ichigo kept his eyes on me, studying me. The rest of the class passed this way, though Orihime would occasionally tap me on the shoulder to make a bad joke about something that the teacher had said, or to ask me a question. If I were to be entirely honest with both myself and others, I would say that I was glad to have at last found a tolerable person to be with in this crazy, messed up town. Something about Orihime was oddly comforting to me- An almost motherly, protective sort of feeling.

The rest of the day progressed much like that class had. Orihime showed me to all the rest of my classes, most of which we had with Ichigo, as well. Despite him still being on his guard with me, I was beginning to sincerely find myself hoping that I grew on him. I didn't know how much longer I could take his shrewd looks and that almost permanent frown of his.

"You shouldn't mind Kurosaki-kun," Orihime said to me. At that moment, we were walking down the hallway, and I was quickly beginning to feel uncomfortable as the eyes of every single boy followed us as we walked. "He's really very kind."

"We just got off on the wrong foot," I said, shrugging nonchalantly, though I could feel everyone's eyes on me like insects crawling over my skin. She shot a questioning gaze in my direction, and I sighed. "I made fun of his name."

Orihime simply laughed in reply. Ignoring the looks that she was getting from all of the boys around us she continued to skip forwards, singing what sounded like 'fuu-fuu-fun-fun-funnn-fuu-funnn' to herself as we walked. I smiled to myself, tucking a stray lock of my dark wavy hair behind my ear. The next second, Orihime had grabbed my hand and dragged me over to a window, throwing it open and leaning out of it in one fluid motion before calling out to someone below.

"KUROSAKI-KUN!" she yelled happily, and winced, feeling the urge to cover my ears. "TATSUKI-CHAN!"

Two people below turned in our direction, and I did an awkward sort of salute to Ichigo, who simply glowered in response. Turning to me, Orihime smiled brightly, tugging on my hand a little more than necessary as she spoke.

"Ready?"

"For wha-"

I didn't get the time to finish my question, however, as the next second she had all but dragged me out of the window. Gripping the metal rain pipe on the side of the school for dear life, I followed Orihime out of the second floor window and to the soccer field below. I heard several cat calls come from some of the members of the soccer team, coupled with the angry yells of Ichigo and the dark haired girl beside of him.

"Everyone can see your panties!" the girl yelled angrily, and I felt my cheeks flush with embarrassment. Why, oh why, had I let Orihime drag me into this. "You're gonna fall, you idiots!"

I landed next to Orihime on the ground a second later, shooting a glare at the group of boys who were now staring at us much the same as a cat stares at a mouse. Orihime simply didn't seem to notice. She grabbed my hand again, dragging me forwards and towards the middle of the field, only to let go a moment later as the dark haired girl's fist made painful contact with the top of her head.

"That hurts!" she squeaked, clutching her skull in pain as she stared up at her friend. Ichigo and I exchanged looks- That was one strange friendship, if you asked me.

"Of course it does!" the girl replied, raising her fist threateningly. "And if you do anything dangerous like that again, it'll hurt even more!"

"Any harder and you'll split her skull," I said sarcastically. Clearly this was the wrong approach, and the girls wrath was then turned to me.

"Don't get me started on you, why didn't you stop her?" she scolded. Despite myself I felt a little unnerved- This girl meant business. "And don't encourage this crazy behavior!"

"Nice to meet you, too," I replied, rolling my eyes in response to the girl's outburst. Ichigo looked at the dark haired girl, his hands placed in his pockets lazily as he watched the scene play out before him.

"No need to get so worked up," he said. "They weren't hurt, after all."

"I think Orihime may have been," I corrected, glancing worriedly at the big breasted girl as she clutched the top of her head in pain. Ichigo sniggered, mostly to himself, though he said nothing more on the subject.

"Shut up, both of you!" the girl said, turning away from Orihime to glare at the two of us. "Don't lecture me about Orihime's education!"

"I don't think that's what this is," I replied, though I was pretty much ignored entirely.

"I wasn't lecturing!" Ichigo protested, holding up his hands in an attempt to calm down the raging girl in front of us. It seemed that, when it came to Inoue Orihime, this girl had no boundaries. "I just felt bad for her, is all!"

"That's exactly what I'm talking about!" she fired back, gripping Ichigo by the collar and proceeding to throttle him roughly. I sighed, rubbing my temples tiredly. If I'd known that the simple act of scaling Karakura High with Orihime would have elicited such wrath from a girl I didn't even know, I never would have done it in the first place.

"Um... hey," Orihime said, trying her best to break up the argument before her. "Tatsuki-chan?" The dark haired girl, Tatsuki, stopped roughing up Ichigo immediately.

"What?" she mumbled, folding her arms and glaring at Ichigo and I one last time.

"Th-this is Horo-san," she said, introducing me at last. Tatsuki's eyes shot in my direction and she nodded curtly. I made a face. She certainly was stern- Almost the polar opposite of Orihime.

"Shirosaki Horo," I said, waving a little as I said my full name. Tatsuki's gaze made its way over to me again, and she laughed, looking between Ichigo and I with vague amusement before speaking.

"Kurosaki," she said, pointing at Ichigo. "Shirosaki." This time she pointed at me, laughing again when we exchanged surprised glances. "Do you two know each other?"

"I know his name means strawberry," I replied blandly, pointing at Ichigo, who glowered.

"Quiet, you."

Tatsuki simply laughed, turning her attention once more to Orihime, who seemed to have something else that she wanted to say. Giving us all a very serious look, she said,

"Well... the thing is..." Orihime paused, as if what she was about to say was of the upmost importance. "So there's this 'Wahaha' song that I've made my The Theme Song of My Life, and sometimes I like to sing the Do-Re-Mi part with the names of certain celebrities who are in just the right place as a way of cheering them on..."

"What do you mean by 'just the right place'?" Ichigo interjected, but him input was blatantly ignored.

"But lately I've been humming it!"

"If it's your theme song, isn't that a good thing?" I asked. I was also ignored.

"Why do you think that is?"

"... Because you've matured?" Tatsuki guessed. Orihime promptly made a face.

"WRONG." she said seriously. The face she had made was the most ridiculous thing I had ever seen, and it even succeeded in causing both Tatsuki and Ichigo to jump with surprise.

"How'd you get your eyes to look like that!" Ichigo yelped. "They look like threes!"

"... She's really come a long way with her faces." Tatsuki said in a voice that was almost inaudible.

"The correct answer is: I can't decide whether 'Do' should be Dokuro-dan or Doburokku!" she said, as if the answer should have been painfully obvious to each of us. "So, which do you think it should be?"

"Who cares?" Ichigo and Tatsuki replied in unison. I made a face.

"Give me the last three minutes of my life back."

Orihime pouted as Tatsuki checked her watch. Muttering something about not having any time for this, Tatsuki took off in the opposite direction. I shrugged, sighing as Orihime called after her in earnest, and checked my own watch for the time. It was actually pretty late, by then. Classes had ended over an hour ago, but Orihime had insisted that I stay after with her. Leaving a distressed looking Orihime and a rather panicked Ichigo behind, I turned on my heel and walked off of the field.

* * *

><p>The sun was lower in the sky when I finally arrived at my apartment complex. I sighed, digging through my bag to look for my keys before entering the building. I had only just retrieved them from the depths of my school bag when someone bumped into me, causing my keys to drop to the concrete with a clatter. I scowled, glancing around to see just who had bumped into me. I was quickly met with a pair of what looked like magenta eyes- It had to be color contacts or something, because as far as I knew, it was impossible to have magenta eyes. I backed away quickly, eager to put some distance between myself and the person who had just bumped into me.<p>

It was a girl- A girl with pink hair, to be exact. Her arms were crossed defiantly across her chest as she looked me up and down, as though she were sizing me up. Her mouth was turned down in a frown as she looked at me. Her short black dress just barely covered her ass, and I vaguely wondered if she was a hooker or something, just by looking at her outfit. She was pretty, her long pink hair flowing over her shoulders and ending at her shoulder blades. Beside her stood a tall man with dark hair, his face almost completely obscured by an eyepatch. I could feel a strange Reiatsu coming off of them in waves- In a way, it was almost similar to what I felt from Orihime.

Neither of them said a word. They simply stared at me in silence for another minute, then turned and walked away. Scowling, I bent over and picked up my keys. From farther away, I was sure I heard the girl say 'Did you see how cute she was!', and the man muttered something inaudible in reply. I made a face, glancing over my shoulder to watch them walk farther down the street.

If I was to be honest, it wasn't too surprising to me to come by someone with a strange power. I had figured that it would happen sooner or later, though I had been desperately hoping for later. I had passed by numerous people since my arrival in this strange town, and many of them had been in possession in oddly elevated amounts of Reiatsu. Perhaps I wasn't one to talk. After all, even though I couldn't feel my own Reiatsu I was sure that it would come off as strange, even to the girl with pink hair... But at least I didn't have pink hair.

Turning away from the double doors to my apartment complex, I instead took the stairs leading back to the street two at a time, trotting down the sidewalk quickly in order to catch up with the two mysterious people. At last I stopped running, peering around the corner of the outside of a shop they had passed- Only to see that they were gone. I frowned, but continued walking, keeping my senses honed in case of any sudden Hollow activity. I was rounding another corner when I felt it- That same strange Reiatsu that I had felt when I had seen the pink hair girl outside of my flat.

Looking upwards, I watched silently as a tall man with dark hair passed by me, a covered bowl of what smelled like ramen held in his right hand. I raised an eyebrow; Even if his Reiatsu hadn't been strange, _that_ most certainly would have gotten my attention. I raised my eyes, meaning to watch him turn the corner, but I froze as I realized that he was now staring over his shoulder, his eyes locked only on me. I swallowed, having stopped walking, my heart beating rapidly in my chest. It was a knowing sort of half-smile, almost threatening in some sense, as if to say 'Yes, I see you'. He nodded, disappearing around the corner the next second without a word.

Now, that couldn't be a coincidence. Of that much, I was absolutely certain. Had it not been for the odd pair of people skulking outside of my new apartment the only minutes previously, I may not have thought anything of it. But their Reiatsus were all so similar... And the man that had just passed me acted as though he knew exactly what I was. Whatever it was called- I had never been too sure, after all, of just what to call this power of mine. Shoving my babbling thoughts into the murky depths of my mind, I peered around the corner, smothering my Reiatsu in the process as I watched the man cross the street and enter a shop. By the looks of the sign, the place sold eel*****.

So I waited. Yes, it was creepy, and yes, I got some strange look from various passersby. But I waited anyways, even if I wasn't too good about being discrete- After all, leaning with my ear pressed against the now closed door of the shop could hardly be called discrete. Although my ears couldn't quite pick up what they were saying indoors, my body could still feel the ramen-man's Reiatsu from inside... As well as something else. Something that I couldn't quite place, though the feel of it was oddly familiar... After another minute, I recognized it as the feeling I had gotten from Ichigo earlier that day.

Without warning, the man who had passed me threw open the door, and I soon found myself almost face-to-chest with the stranger. He looked down at me with interest, saying nothing and shutting the door behind him purposefully before speaking.

"Riruka... Kutsuzawa... You didn't tell me we had company." I flinched, whipping around to see the pink haired girl and her companion peering down at me from the roof of the neighboring building.

"I thought you wanted us to get her?" Riruka smirked down at us from her perch on the building. The man smiled.

"I don't think she knows what's going on," he said softly, peering down at me for the second time. My dark eyes widened, and I backed away from him as quickly as I could. I had never felt so much power in one person before- And I was cornered by almost equally powerful people behind me, as well. The pink haired girl puffed out her cheeks as I turned back to look at her.

"... I think we may have scared her," she muttered.

But I'd had enough. Without a second thought I sprinted clean in the opposite direction, not even daring to look back to see if they were following me. My lungs screamed and my muscles ached, but I just kept right on running. In the back of my mind, I was asking myself why- I had power, too, after all. But I had felt so surrounded, so closed in, so _caged._ It was that same horrible feeling that I got when I was surrounded by too many people that I didn't know. And I fucking hated it.

At last, I stopped running. I dropped my schoolbag, putting my hands on top of my head in an attempt to help myself breathe better. My raven waves had come undone from their usual low bun, and now cascaded over my shoulders and down my back, ending just below my shoulder blades. I squinted my eyes against the light of the still lowering sun, and at last I caught my breath, breathing in heavily one last time before I let my arms fall to my sides. I sighed, looking down to see that my school uniform was now hopelessly crumpled.

To add to my already long list of problems, I soon realized that I had no idea where I was. Looking around, I found that I recognized absolutely nothing around me. I looked to my left, my eyes falling on a little shop just off the side of the road. The sign above the door read 'Urahara Shop' in big yellow letters, and just inside I could see a man speaking with a young girl with dark hair. I knitted my eyebrow together before sighing in defeat- I had to ask for directions.

The man looked up from the girl as I entered the shop, his eyes widening slightly when he saw me. The girl turned also, and her eyes knitted together in brief confusion before her expression went back to being as blank as it had before I had made my appearance.

"Well hello, there!" said the man jovially. I made a face as he spread his arms outward, and for a moment I thought maybe he was asking if I wanted a hug or not. It wasn't until later that I realized that he was simply presenting the shop to me. "And who might you be?"

"... Wait... Were you in my dad's clinic this morning?" the girl asked. I blinked, pointing at her thoughtfully before replying.

"You're Ichigo's sister?"

"Yeah, I am," she replied, meeting my eyes seriously before continuing. "You go to his school." It wasn't a question. My uniform was enough of a giveaway to what school I went to.

"He's kind of weird." I said thoughtfully. Much to my surprise, the girl laughed.

"Kurosaki-san certainly is a character," the blonde man said thoughtfully. Clearly, he didn't enjoy being left out of a conversation. "So, just how did you come by my shop, miss...?"

"Shirosaki." I said, bowing my head just barely as I spoke. I'd never really been one for formality, and I usually never bowed when introducing myself, but I just wanted directions so I could be on my way. "Shirosaki Horo. I got lost,"

"I see," he said, tapping his hat thoughtfully as he spoke. "It's very nice to meet you, Shirosaki-san. I am Urahara Kisuke."

"Uh... Hi," I said, beginning to feel a little awkward under Urahara's curious gaze. "I just... I just need directions," Urahara nodded, passing a bag over to Ichigo's sister before he turned to me again.

"Kurosaki Karin-san, could you possibly show Shirosaki-san back to the main road?"

I paused, turning to look down at Ichigo's sister- Karin. She smiled a small smile, nodding up at me as she turned away from Urahara, who was still giving me a strange sort of smile.

"Thanks," I muttered to Urahara, who nodded and then smiled some more.

"Say hello to Kurosaki-san for me, Shirosaki-san." he told me. This threw me slightly- Ichigo's sister was standing right next to me. If anybody should be saying hello to Ichigo, certainly it should be his sister, who _lived_ with him. I said nothing, however, simply cast him a suspicious look before exiting the building behind Karin. "Oh, and Kurosaki Karin-san... Your feelings still haven't changed?"

"Nope." she replied curtly, sliding the door closed behind us as we left Urahara Shop. I had to admit that I felt a little shaken- Urahara certainly was a strange man, and the way he had looked at me really made me feel uncomfortable. It was like he knew something that I didn't. And I didn't like it. After another moment's silence, Karin turned to me. "Don't mind him, he says weird things sometimes."

"Yeah, I'll keep that in mind." I said. I peered over my shoulder, suddenly sensing that we were being watched. Seeing nothing I ignored it, walking on beside Karin back towards the main road. A second later, however, Karin stopped walking, moving in front of me to block me from moving any further. "What?"

"You seem strong." she said seriously. I paused- How would she know? "I can tell from your Reiatsu. I'm sure you can tell from mine that I can see spirits," I narrowed my eyes, an amused smirk spreading over my features as I folded my arms across my chest, leaning back to look her up and down before replying.

"What does that matter?" I asked, meeting her gaze. She certainly was an interesting girl- As high strung and serious as her brother, by the looks of things. After a few minutes of saying nothing, Karin finally averted her eyes, her nervousness of being around me seeming to have finally gotten the better of her.

"Just... Look after my brother... Please," she whispered, crossing her arms and turning away. "I can't always be around for him-"

"You're talking about the Hollows," I stated, sighing heavily. "No worries. I already know Ichigo's got some shitty Reiatsu,"

"Don't." she said seriously, her eyes meeting mine once again. I stopped speaking immediately- She was one ballsy little girl. "I just... I can't always be around for him, you know?" I smiled, my more maternal side getting the better of me as I punched her playfully in the shoulder.

"I know." I said. "I'll look out for him," She nodded slowly, dropping her arms to her side and walking the other way.

"The main road's that way." she said, pointing to her left. I followed her finger, looking to my left and squinting until I could see the cars driving back and forth in between buildings. I sighed with relief- It was good to not be lost anymore. I turned to thank the younger Kurosaki, but she had already vanished from my sight. I sighed, rubbing my temples tiredly as a tired feeling suddenly washed over me- Meeting new people clearly wasn't my forte, as it always succeeded in taking a lot of my energy.

"I see..." My eyes widened and I raised my head, looking back and forth around me to find who had just spoken. "So you are the girl he had them following..."

This time, I looked straight up. Above me was a dark haired man, peering out at me over the edge of a building. I narrowed my eye, squinting as I tried to make out his features from so far below. He was smiling, that much I could tell, but I wasn't too sure why. In a flash he was beside me, his thin face inches from my own.

"It's nice to finally meet you, Shirosaki Horo."

* * *

><p><strong>*The store that Ichigo works at is called Unagiya, which translated from Japanese means "eel shop". Ichigo gives his boss a lot of flak about it in the manga, but she never changes the name even though it's confusing to customers, since they don't actually sell eel.<strong>

**I thought I'd take this opportunity to give a brief description of Horo: **

**She's about five foot three, pale and slender. Her hair is black and usually hangs in loose waves, ending just past her shoulder blades. She has it parted on the side, so sometimes her hair falls in her face even though she doesn't have bangs. Her eyes are a dark brown, but people often mistake them for black because they are so dark. On the middle fingers of her right and left hands are two cross tattoos, done in a sort of gothic style, which are the basis of her powers. Usually, Horo is sarcastic and disagreeable, but she has a much softer side that comes out sometimes. She's also a compulsive liar, but it's become more like a hobby for her than anything else. There are also hints of her showing symptoms of agoraphobia, though she's fine around people in small numbers or once she gets to know them better. Chocolate with chili powder is her favorite food and her favorite celebrity is Al Pacino. **

**Thanks to everyone who favorited and alerted and reviewed on the first chapter! I'd love to get some more feedback on this, so please, if you read be sure to review!**


	3. Chapter 3: Guns Beat Swords

...

* * *

><p>"<em>Everything in this world has a soul.<em>_"_

_-Kugo Ginjo_

* * *

><p>During my short life, I had never had very much experience when it came to dealing with stalkers. That being said, when some random guy popped out of nowhere, and all but admitted to having been following me for the whole day, at least, I hadn't the slightest clue how to react or what to say. I was quite sure that there was no standard social protocol when it came to meeting your own personal stalker face to face. So instead I just stood there, glaring at the man in front of me in a mixture of surprise and pure unbridled outrage.<p>

His dark hair shifted around him in the soft breeze, and his cold brown eyes were set on me unblinkingly. I had to admit, the way that he was staring at me was seriously unnerving, even for someone like me. He wore a white collared shirt and long dark pants, to which he had attached a pair of suspenders, which matched his pants in color. Had the situation not been so tense, I most likely would have made some sort of jibe about how he dressed like a fancy bellhop. A long, dark scar ran the side of his left eye, and I briefly wondered if maybe some other girl he had stalked in the past had finally gotten fed up and just kicked his sorry ass straight back to wherever he had come from. I snickered briefly at the idea and, to my surprise, the man smiled back at me.

"Something about this situation amuses you?" he asked, smiling fondly in my direction as if we had known each other forever.

"Nah, it's just I thought suspenders went out of fashion sometime back in the nineties," I replied snarkily, smirking up at the mysterious man above me. I was putting on a confident front, but really, I was screaming at myself inside of my head. What if he had a gun? What if he actually _was_ some escaped nut job who had been stalking me? Something told me that there was much more to it, but one could never be too careful, right? "Clearly I was wrong; You pull those things off pretty well."

The man didn't reply, but he smiled that same cold smile yet again. In his hand he held a book, which confused me slightly- I could only hope that it wasn't filled up with polaroid pictures of me. I shivered. That would just be too much.

"You are the girl who calls herself Shirosaki Horo, correct?" he said finally.

"... And if I was?" I replied, my apprehension showing a little too clearly for my liking. "Maybe I'm her twin sister."

"Horo-san has a twin?"

"She might," I said quickly, doing my best to distract him. "You never know."

The man laughed again, putting his free hand in his pocket and jumping down from the building roof. He landed on the ground in front of me with ease, and I flinched; He wasn't a normal human, as I had been hoping. This made the situation much more complicated. He smiled again, leaning down to gaze into my dark chocolate eyes, and I backed up as swiftly as humanly possible, anxious to put distance back in between us.

"You seem nervous," he said, stating the obvious. "That's good. It means that your instincts are not as bad as I thought."

"Oh, goody," I replied. I was now balling my right hand into a fist, preparing for any possible situation.

Much to my dismay, it seemed that this was actually the best course of action, for the next second the man had whipped out what I had thought to be an entirely normal bookmark, which he then promptly transformed into a lethal looking katana. I blanched- This had to be the worst situation that I had ever been in, ever. He swung his weapon through the air threateningly, taking another step towards me with that same calm smile on his lips. I glowered in his direction; Was he fucking with me? I couldn't understand why he was acting like what he was doing was completely normal, or at least understandable.

Without another word, I lifted up my right fist, ignoring the shooting pains from my stitches as I did so. Familiar dark energy surrounded my arm as I did so, and I could already feel my tattoo emptying itself of ink. The man watched, his eyes filling with curiosity, as my entire arm was covered from fingertip to shoulder blade with waves of dark energy. In my hand I held one of my twin pistols, its chain rattling as I moved my arm to point the barrel of my gun directly at the bridge of the man's nose.

"You've got the wrong girl, weirdo," I said through clenched teeth, hoping against hope that he had not noticed the my finger was shaking against the trigger of my gun. "Don't think for a second I won't use this- I've killed people before." This, of course, was a complete lie. I had never before used my power against a human- Only Hollows. And this scared me. It was the reason that I couldn't get my hand to stop shaking, no matter how hard I tried.

"Actually, seeing this just proves that I have the right girl." he replied thoughtfully, twirling his sword back and forth through his fingers while he spoke. Despite my fear, I smirked.

"I don't know what action movies you've been watching," I began, pulling the hammer of my pistol back with a soft 'click'. "But guns seem to always beat swords." The man seemed to find the amusing, laughing softly to himself as I continued to point the barrel of my gun directly at his face. I scowled. It seemed that my threatening words were having exactly the opposite effect that I desired, a fact which irked me to some extent; Was this guy insane? "... What's so funny?"

"You are awfully suspicious for a girl your age,"

"Says the man who's pointing a sword at me,"

"Says the girl who has a gun to my head."

The two of us lapsed back into silence, my narrowed eyes fixed on his with a mixture of frustration and curiosity. I didn't think for a second that he did not have the intention to hurt me- I could feel predatory waves rolling off of him like a bad perfume, and despite his words, I refused to lower my gun. I knew that using this single gun on him would not kill him- Using only one could only ever wound someone, or perhaps take off a limb. Using the two together was the only way to get rid of Hollows, after all.

"What do you want with me?" I asked finally, abandoning all pretenses. I didn't care that he now knew for sure that I was Shirosaki Horo. I just wanted him to go away so I could get home. My hand was still shaking, the chain on my arm rattling as it did so.

"Simply saying hello," he replied, holding up both hands innocently, though he did not drop his sword. I arched an eyebrow in disbelief.

"Is greeting people with swords a common way to say hello where you're from?"

"... I will not deny that I had planned on attacking you." he said after a moment's pause. I froze. How could he admit it so openly?

"So what changed?" With these words, he smiled again, dropping the hand that was not holding his katana and meeting my eyes directly.

"Not much," he said, and then he disappeared, bounding into the air above me with a single leap and raising his blade above his head.

I couldn't think- I didn't have time. I rolled out of the way just in time, and the next second his katana sliced through the ground where I had been standing. I now had my back pressed against the wall, now, and I could already feel my brain kicking into high gear- My fight-or-flight reaction was slowly allowing me to make up my mind of just what I should do. I dodged his blade yet again, moving to the side to watch as the tip of the katana rammed against the brick wall where my face had just been. My breath caught in my throat- He was serious. This guy didn't care if he killed me.

"What's the matter?" he taunted, his bright brown eyes moving to look at me. "I thought you said that guns beat swords-"

In a flash I was gone, using the ground below me to speed myself up, and I stopped just behind him. He flinched as he felt the barrel of my gun dig into his back, the cool metal digging into his spine roughly as I grabbed the back of his neck with my hand. I was no longer shaking- My fight-or-flight had come to its conclusion. I would not let this man kill me- I'd kill _him_ before I let him do that.

"They do," I replied, and without a second thought I pulled the trigger.

The man, however, seemed to be a step ahead of me, pulling his body up and out of my grip almost too quickly for me to follow. He wasn't fast enough to dodge the attack entirely, however, and I heard him grunt in pain when the bullet of black and red energy grazed past his stomach, singing the fabric of his shirt and drawing blood. The next second he was on me, and I felt a horrible pain in my right arm- Much to my surprise, he had reached through the dark energy surrounding it and ripped out my stitches through my shirt. I couldn't help it- I screamed.

the feeling of my flesh being torn along with the stitches shot through my nervous system, shocking me and allowing the man another opening. I felt a sting across my collar bone as his katana cut through the upper part of my chest and left shoulder.

And then I was running.

This man was faster, this man was stronger, and even if I had landed a lucky hit I knew that he would not let his guard down like that so easily another time. Perhaps not ever. My gun I dropped my schoolbag off of my shoulder, the canvas tote landing on the ground behind me with a thud as I continued to sprint down the alleyway, back in the direction of Urahara Shop. I kept my gun materialized in my hand, however, reluctant to do away with the one thing I had to protect me.

My muscles screamed in protest, and I was quickly feeling lightheaded. My throat felt sore from breathing in so heavily, but I ignored it, continuing to feel the wind rush by me as I ran. My hair came out of its bun, my hair tie dropping to the ground behind me as I rounded the corner just past Urahara Shop- Only to bump into someone.

I muffled sort of 'eep' escaped my lips as I fell to the ground, the air in my lungs forced out as my back made heavy contact with the ground below. I didn't allow myself any time to wallow in my pain, however, as I wasn't sure just who I had bumped into- How could that man have made it there so quickly? Without a second though I aimed my gun in front of me, pointing it straight at whoever it was that I had bumped into.

"Whoa, whoa, hey!" said a familiar voice, and I froze.

Slowly, my blurry vision steadied, air returning to my lungs as I calmed down. I gulped in as much air as possible, my hand still shaking from the run and the fight. I blinked several times, gasping when I realized at just who my gun was now pointed.

"... I... Ichi... _Ichigo?_" I breathed, my voice raspy from the lack of air.

The orange haired boy in front of me had his hands in the air, and his expression told me that he now definitely thought that I was one insane bitch. His brown eyes looked from my gun, to the dark energy surrounding my arm, to my flushed and panicked expression. My own eyes, however, had left his face to look at the man who stood behind him- It was the man with the ramen from before.

"Ich... Ichigo, what..." I gulped in more air, mentally willing my hand to stop shaking. I tried to lower my hand, but I just couldn't. The sudden spike in adrenaline in my body seemed to have also succeeded in making me overly suspicious of everyone around me, and my body didn't seem to want to point my gun anywhere but the people in front of me. "What are you doing here?"

"I could ask you the same thing!" he yelled angrily. "And why the hell d'you have a gun? Point that thing somewhere else!"

"S-sorry," I stammered, and at last I lowered it, though my hand still refused to stop shaking.

Despite myself, I felt my eyes stinging. It was that feeling that you always get when you are about to cry- That horrible, tingly, prickly and hot sensation that your eyes get when you let your emotions run away with you. I tried to calm myself by breathing in deeply, but it did nothing. I hadn't expected the experience to effect me so much- I fought Hollows all the time, fighting was no big deal. Perhaps it was because Hollows were essentially mindless animals. But this... That had been a _human man_ trying to kill me back there.

"... Hey..." Ichigo murmured, seeming to have finally picked up on my distress. "Hey, Shirosaki, what..." He and the man behind him exchanged glances. The ramen man shrugged, keeping his hands in his pockets. "Shirosaki, what happened?" Ichigo asked finally, crouching down in front of me.

I glanced up, allowing my eyes to meet his as I continued to calm myself by breathing. His soft brown eyes were so similar to the man who had attacked me, but instead of looking predatory and intrigued, they looked concerned- Far more human than the katana-wielding man who had attacked me. I felt the dark energy around my arm subside, and Ichigo's eyes widened as the gun in my hand disappeared along with it.

"Shir... Hey, you're bleeding!" Ichigo exclaimed, staring wide eyed at my right arm. I shook my head quickly, not really caring that the stitches had come undone- I couldn't feel anything. My body felt numb- Shocked, like I had just been electrocuted. "Shirosaki, what-"

"STOP CALLING ME THAT!" I screamed, covering my face with my hands as I yelled. Ichigo flinched, clearly not having been expecting me to lash out at him. I knew that I shouldn't have- I_ knew_ that. It wasn't Ichigo's fault, and normally, him calling me by my last name would not have bothered me in the slightest. But it was as if I _needed _someone to be angry with. I needed someone to blame, maybe, or I just needed to lash out at someone. "I have a name!" I continued, keeping my palms pressed up against my eyes. "... I have... I have a name..."

Ichigo stayed silent, and I flinched when I felt his hand on my arm. He knew what I was doing- I was creating another problem, so that I wouldn't have to focus on what really had me so upset. Focus on anything but the fact that I had just been attacked by something other than a Hollow. I shivered, finally drawing my palms away from my eyes to look up at Ichigo, who was still looking down at me with those kind eyes- It was an expression that I had never seen on him before.

"... Sorry," he said finally, and I felt my breathing even out. "Sorry, Horo."

I took a deep, shaky breath, willing myself with all of my might to not let the tears spill out of my eyes. Not now. Not in front of this guy who's name I had made fun of, and definitely not in front of this weird guy who carried ramen around and cornered me with his friends in back alleys. It didn't work. Not at all. No sooner had I willed myself not to cry did I feel warm tears spill down the sides of my face, and no matter how much I wiped them away, they just kept coming.

Without another word, Ichigo scooped me up off of the ground, not seeming to care that my right arm was dripping blood all over his clothes. The minute that he picked me up, I felt exhausted. The adrenaline in my system from my fight-or-flight sequence seemed to be ebbing away. The panic now over, my body was giving itself over to the exhaustion of using my power and then sprinting at least half a mile from the main road and back to Urahara Shop. Ichigo turned to the ramen man, then, his expression back to his usual scowl as they met eyes.

"... Don't get me wrong," he began, hoisting me up in his arms further to get a better grip on my body. "I still don't trust you."

"Of course not," the man said, his eyes darting between both Ichigo and I. I averted my eyes- How embarrassing. Not only had he caught me eavesdropping on his previous meeting with Ichigo, but he had also seen me cry. I knew that if we ever met again, I would act thoroughly awkward and probably borderline socially retarded. "Alright... Then I'll just give you this," he continued.

Digging into his pocket, he pulled out not one, but two pure black rectangular pieces of paper. I gazed at the curiously from Ichigo's arms, my face now resting on his shoulder. They almost looked like business cards- Was that all there was to it? He was trying to hire Ichigo? I immediately felt stupid for having been so suspicious of him, even if he was a weirdo for walking around with a bowl of ramen.

"One for you and your friend," he said, placing the cards on my stomach, as Ichigo's hands were no longer free. "That's a very interesting power you've got there." he said, staring at my bloody right arm, where my gun had been minutes prior. I swallowed thickly, not really knowing what to say. Perhaps he wasn't just trying to hire Ichigo, after all. I wondered for a moment just what he knew about my power, but I didn't feel like speaking just yet. I nodded curtly, saying nothing more to the man as Ichigo walked off in the opposite direction.

Talk about a bad first impression.

* * *

><p>I stared down at my arm nervously, looking anywhere but the eyes of Kurosaki Ichigo. I had to say, I was more than grateful to his father for redoing my stitches so well, and free of charge, at that. Perhaps he knew more about my situation than I had given him credit for- After all, the Kurosaki children seemed hardly normal. My brief meeting with Karin had been proof enough of that.<p>

Karin had been sitting in the kitchen upon me and Ichigo's arrival, and she had looked very worried when she got a glimpse of my mangled arm. I knew it wasn't entirely because I was injured, though- She was worried because there was something out there that could hurt someone with a power like mine. She was worried for her brother, and I couldn't say that I blamed her.

"... Do you plan on telling me what happened?"

Ichigo's voice cut through my thoughts, and I jumped, almost dropping the cup of tea that I held in my hands, having been so caught up in my musings that I had almost forgotten where I was. Currently, I was sitting on the edge of Ichigo's bed, and Ichigo sat directly to my right, looking at me out of the corners of his eyes. I met them briefly, my dark brown meeting his hazel for only a second before I looked away once again.

Words could not describe my shame. After all, I was fairly certain that up until an hour ago, Ichigo had been under the impression that I was a hardened and sassy eighteen year old girl who always had a witty retort up her sleeve. Who knew what he thought of me, now? I bit my lower lip, unsure of where to start. Instead, I focused my gaze on the wood grain in the floorboards of Ichigo's room. Finally, he sighed.

"It's the least you can do to thank me for carrying you back here," he said at last, and I frowned. "You're not as light as you look, you kno-"

"Shut it, you!" I growled, punching him in the arm roughly with my good arm. I paused as Ichigo chuckled to himself, running his hands through his hair as I continued to stare at him in confusion. "What?"

"Nothing," he said, shrugging as he sat up a little straighter. I made a face, knitting my eyebrows together in confusion as he met my gaze again. "... You're really not going to tell me what you were running from?" I paused. Ichigo _had_ dragged me all the way back here. Not only that, but his father had fixed my stitches for free, and now he had brought me tea in his room.

"... There was-"

"KUROSAKI-KUUUUUN!"

The both of us flinched, the calm atmosphere around us having been abruptly shattered by the high pitched voice came sailing through Ichigo's open window. The both of us exchanged glances before turning around to look out of the window. No sooner had I stuck my head out the window did I swiftly retreat back into the safety of Ichigo's room; It was Orihime.

"Heeeey, Kurosaki-kun!" she called again. "Betcha' could use some bread! I'll give it to you cheap!" Ichigo ducked back into his room, noticing my distressed expression when he caught sight of my face.

"What's up with you?" he asked, frowning as he walked towards his door. "Hurry up, will you, Inoue will just keep shouting if I don't get to the door." I rolled my eyes, pushing myself up off of his bed to follow him out of his room. "... Seriously, what's your deal, you've met Inoue before,"

"I have," I replied quickly, trotting along behind him as we made out way down the stairs. "But then she'll ask why I'm here-"

"You got stitches-"

"And then she'll ask why I needed stitches-"

"You were attacked,"

"I don't wanna tell her I was attacked!" I whined, still following along behind him as he made his way to the front door. "She has nothing to do with this!"

It was too late, however, as Ichigo had already thrown the front door wide open. Orihime's brown eyes widened with curiosity as they moved from Ichigo to me. I could only imagine what must have been going through her mind as I peered out around Ichigo, my dark brown eyes wide as they met her gaze head on.

"Horo-san?" she said, staying outside of the Kurosaki residence as she let her eyes dart between the two of us. "What are you doing here?"

"Project-"

"Stitches-"

Ichigo and I said this at the exact same time, and it was all I could do not to flush crimson as I glowered up at the orange haired boy in front of me. A small smirk tugged at his lips, though he kept his lips turned downwards in his usual frown. Orihime was still peering around Ichigo to look at me curiously, her wide brown eyes looking me head to toe before speaking again.

"S-sorry, Kurosaki-kun, I didn't know Horo-san was over!" she said, smiling brightly, though I could see something that looked like sadness in her usually happy eyes. Or was it jealousy? I couldn't quite tell. "Uh, maybe I should come back later..." she said softly, turning away from Ichigo and I as she made her way down the road.

"No, wait, Orihime!" I called, leaning out of the door. But she had already made her way around the corner. I sighed. "Damn!" I muttered, shutting the door behind me to glare up Ichigo, who seemed completely unfazed by what had just happened. "Now look what you did,"

"I didn't _do_ anything," he replied waspishly, and I rolled my eyes. "You could have just told her why you were actually here, you know." I frowned bitterly, sitting down at the kitchen table and digging into the small pocket in the skirt of my school uniform.

"And tell her what?" I snapped, turning the ebony business card that ramen man had given to me over an hour ago. "That a strange guy with a katana came at me out of nowhere and ripped out my stitches and said he wanted to kill me?" Ichigo blinked, sitting down across from me, eyes wide.

"... Is that seriously what happened, or is that another lie?" he asked, his wide eyes now narrowed in suspicion. I glowered.

"Of course it's true!" I replied angrily, and I vaguely noticed when Karin peered around the corner of the kitchen wall. "Why would I lie?"

"I don't know, why would you tell me you were cow tipping when there isn't a farm around here for miles?"

For a moment, I was silent. This was the first time I had ever really come to regret my compulsive lying- It was unfortunate, really, but there wasn't too much I could do about it.

"... It's true," I repeated, running my fingers through my wavy raven locks before holding my head in my hands and glaring at the table top. "I swear," Ichigo nodded, folding his hands in front of him and lacing his fingers together. His expression had now turned serious, and I peered up from underneath the curtain of my hair, my brown eyes meeting his.

"What did he-"

We both jumped as his phone rang, the vibrations running through table as it moved across the table top. The tension now broken, I lifted my face out from the protection of my hair as Ichigo flipped open his phone, putting it to his ear before saying hello. I gazed at his face as he listened to whoever was on the other line, watching as his expression changed from calm to almost panicked. He hung up the phone with a snap, meeting my eyes once again as I stared at him, my expression enough to let him know what I couldn't bring myself to ask.

"... It's Ishida," he said, his voice low and serious. I paused.

"Who the hell is that?"

* * *

><p><strong>Thanks to all who reviewed the last two chapters, and to all who favorited and added the story to their alerts! Thanks so much, and I'd love to get some more feedback.<strong>

**to Animelover: Thanks for reviewing! Sorry to say though, there's no real reason that she has guns instead of a sword, except for the fact that I thought it'd be nice to have something different so that her Fullbring power thing wasn't too similar to tsukishima's and ginjo's.**

**Thanks again for the reviews, and don't hesitate to tell me your thoughts on this chapter!**


	4. Chapter 4: Miss Fullbringer Seven

...

* * *

><p><em>"You must never make light of the powers of time, for meddling with them is a truly terrifying affair."<em>

_-Giriko Kutsuzawa_

* * *

><p>I had always assumed that I was in pretty decent physical condition. But after sprinting alongside Ichigo for at least a good twenty minutes, this assumption was swiftly disproved. That being said, I spent a good five minutes catching my breath and clutching my side when we arrived at the hospital. Orihime seemed to have already been there for several minutes before we had arrived, not that I would know, considering both she and Ichigo seemed much too distressed to give me so much as the time of day, which would have been helpful, considering that I had no idea who the hell Ishida was to begin with.<p>

As Orihime briefly filled Ichigo in on what little she knew about the situation at hand, I allowed my eyes to travel over towards the nearly transparent curtain directly to our right. Through it, I could just barely make out the shadow of a person just behind it.

"Did you call Chad, too?" Ichigo asked, and I raised my eyebrows. Now I really felt out of the loop- Who the fuck was Chad?

"No, he wasn't answering his phone." Orihime replied feebly, looking down at her lap rather nervously, casting a glance my way for only a second before continuing. "He must still be at work."

"You called Kurosaki, too?"

I almost jumped, my eyes leaving Orihime and snapping back towards the mystery person behind the curtain in a flash. The silhouette had moved, the person behind it apparently trying to sit up. A grunt from the curtain told me that he was injured in a way that made it too painful for him to sit up normally. "Jeez... That wasn't necessary."

"Is that Ishida?" I asked, pointing nervously in the direction of the curtain. Orihime nodded, and the silhouette shifted uncomfortably.

"Who is that?"

"Hi, I'm Horo," I replied, smiling awkwardly and waving even though he couldn't see me. I almost smacked myself- When this day was finally over, I'd have to make myself a medal for World's Worst First Impressions.

"_Not necessary?_" An unfamiliar voice had spoken, and I jumped again. This situation was just getting weirder and weirder by the second. "You always speak like an adult, if nothing else." The man who had spoken had appeared directly beside Ichigo's shoulder. His stern eyes peered out at the three of us over his glasses, and I shivered. He certainly knew how to intimidate strangers.

"... I thought that I wasn't allowed visitors." Ishida said slowly from behind the curtain. I frowned. I was beginning to feel very out of place. "What if having all these people exacerbates my condition?"

"Who do you think operated on you? Of course having people won't exacerbate it. And as someone who nearly died from an enemy attack, it's not your place to question a doctor's orders."

"Ishida, you were attacked?" Ichigo gasped, turning back towards the curtain. "What's going on?"

"None of your business," the boy replied curtly. I frowned- For someone who was supposed to be his friend, he certainly acted like it was a huge pain to just be talking to the orange haired teen.

"Of course it is!" Ichigo replied, raising his voice and stepping closer to the curtain. "Earlier today, Horo was attacked- And now you! And you both lost!" From my right, I saw Orihime peer up at me, concern evident in her eyes. I glanced over my shoulder, meeting her light brown eyes with my own. Honestly, I was glad to see that she was concerned; After the weird understanding between Orihime, Ichigo and I earlier that afternoon, I had been worried that she would be angry with me. "If it's something that even you can't take care of, we should join forces! Say something!"

"You should pool your knowledge," the doctor said calmly from his place by the wall. "Or has my kindness all be for nothing?"

"Um," I began, holding up a finger in an attempt to get a word in edgewise. "D'you think maybe-"

"You shut up!" Ishida growled, and for a minute I was seriously about to pull that damn curtain and punch him straight in whatever injury he had sustained. Then, I realized that he wasn't talking to me. He was talking to the doctor.

"Oh, now that was close." he murmured, his eyes sharpening below his glasses. "A little louder and you would have reopened your wounds."

"Ishida-kun..." Orihime whispered, her eyes saddening as she peered over at Ishida.

"I'm sorry, Inoue-san... There really is nothing that I can tell you, now."

Everyone was silent. For a moment, I thought that maybe Ichigo would yell at Ishida again. The usually rowdy carrot-top said nothing, though, and instead nodded at Orihime. She returned this gesture with a nervous bite of her lips and another nod, standing up from her chair slowly and stuffing her hands in the front pockets of her sweatshirt. She and Ichigo turned to leave, and I was sure that Ichigo had expected for me to follow after him as the doctor lead the two of them out of the hospital and to the streets.

Despite this, I remained behind. I pursed my lips for a moment, looking back and forth between the closing doors and the curtain. At last I made up my mind, stepping closer towards the curtain and pulling it back in one swift motion. I blinked- Several times, and in rapid succession. I _knew_ this guy.

"You're..."

"... Ah... I thought I recognized your voice," I'll admit, his reaction was a little more stoic than I had been expecting. I shook it off quickly, however, and just continued to stare down at the injured boy in front of me.

"Huh," I muttered, sighing heavily and letting the edge of the curtain slide from my fingers. "Small town, am I right?" Ishida said nothing, simply rolling his eyes in reply before glaring pointedly into my eyes once again.

"Why did you come with Kurosaki?"

"We're acquaintances,"

"Not friends?"

"Probably not."

Ishida made a face, and I rolled my eyes. I honestly didn't know where Ichigo and I stood as far as friendship levels went. I mean, what with all that had happened in the last few hours, every single thing that could have possibly went wrong, _did_ go wrong. I'd pointed a gun straight at his face, I'd burst into tears, and I'd gotten blood all over his t shirt. All in all, I figured that at this point he would either really, really hate me, or he already liked me a good amount, because if I were him, I would have kicked me right out on my ass a long time ago.

"It's Ishida, right?" Ishida nodded.

"And you're Horo?"

"Yeah. Shirosaki Horo." I replied. Ishida's eyebrows knit together momentarily, but I ignored him. "Ishida, this man that attacked you... He didn't happen to wear suspenders, did he?" For a moment, Ishida was dead silent. Either I was completely wrong, or I had hit the nail right on the head. At last, he nodded.

"Yeah..." he muttered. "Yeah, I think he did." I sighed heavily. It seemed that this personal stalker of mine was not so personal after all. I wasn't too sure whether to feel offended or relieved.

"Right. I was attacked by him earlier today," I told him, holding up my right arm. The sleeve of the shirt of my school uniform was still bloody. "He ripped out my stitches. It was gross."

"I can imagine."

"Don't," I said swiftly, lowering my arm. "Any theories on what this guy wants?"

"None."

The awkward silence from before had now returned, leaving me standing over Ishida in silence and staring at his wounds. I had to say, I was rather glad I had left my fight when I had- I sure as hell would not have wanted to end up in such a horrible condition. I found myself wondering just how bad the injury had been before whatever operations he had been through. Ishida suddenly cleared his throat, tearing me from my mindless musings and bringing my eyes away from his injuries and back to his stern eyes, which were oddly similar to that of the doctor's. I figured that they must have been related- After all, the man's bedside manner had been oddly crass and sarcastic for a doctor and a patient.

"What are you?" he asked swiftly, and I blinked. "There are only a few people around here that I have ever seen with powers- Kurosaki and Inoue-san are just two of them," I raised my eyebrows high. I'd had no idea that Orihime had a power- I had only known that she had an oddly comforting Reiatsu. "I've never seen you here before. And I've never seen that sort of power before... At least, not in that form..."

"I'm new," I answered, narrowing my eyes in suspicion and leaning in closer. "And what do you mean by _that form?_" His words and phrasing were cryptic at best, and I couldn't even make out just what he was thinking by staring into those strangely calm eyes of his. What had he meant- Was there someone around here with a power almost exactly like mine?

"It's not your concern." I snorted loudly.

"Bullshit, it's totally my concern." I replied, prodding him in the chest despite his injuries. "You listen here, you weirdo archer. My power, my business, got it?" Ishida shut his eyes and turned away from me, shifting positions before speaking again.

"You had better leave." he murmured, and I frowned. "My father will probably not be happy that a stranger stayed behind in my room."

Despite my frustration at the situation, I turned on my heel and left. Was that all that I was supposed to expect from him? Some sort of cryptic message and then I was just supposed to leave? It seemed that his courteous or heroic behavior did not extend beyond Hollow-killing. I sighed, pushing open the front doors of the hospital and staring up at the now darkened sky. I shoved my hands into the small pockets hidden by the pleats of the skirt of my school uniform- Then I froze. My fingers were touching the edge of something.

Grasping the object with my fingertips, I slowly pulled it out from the folds of my skirt. I soon found myself staring, wide eyed, at the dark black business card that the ramen man had given me hours earlier. The only things written on it was the word _Xcution_, and then several numbers, which I could only assume was a phone number. I narrowed my eyes, breathing out sharply in frustration and anger- Somehow, something told me that these people knew exactly who had attacked Ishida and I.

It was late, it was dark, and I barely knew my way around this town. But none of these things seemed to matter, and I soon found myself honing in on anything with a large Reiatsu. It took some effort- I would be lying if I said that it was almost too easy for me to locate Reiatsu that was farther away than several feet. It was almost as exhausting as running, or maybe lifting weights. From far off in the distance, I could feel Orihime's from back at our apartment complex. Coming directly from the hospital was Ishida's. These two I recognized.

At last, I found what I was looking for. It was several miles straight ahead. I wasn't quite sure where, as I was too far away to pinpoint the exact location. But I knew that this had to be it- After all, I could feel at least four different Reiatsus all together- Maybe even more. And they were all that same, strange Reiatsu that was almost like a Hollow's, as well as oddly similar to Orihime's.

Without thinking, I sprinted off in the direction of the Reiatsu, not even bothering to check the time before leaving the hospital far behind me. The soles of my shoes scuffed against the sidewalk as I ran, my heavy breathing coming out in puffs of white in the cool night air. I was cold, and my muscles screamed in protest the farther that I ran, but I just didn't want to stop- I wanted to get this over with, right then and there.

Finally, I could stop running. I was right next to it- The Reiatsu was almost overwhelming, since I had been honing in on it from the very start. I looked to my right, my eyes raking over the almost abandoned-looking building that stood in the nearly empty lot beside me. I took a deep breath, attempting to get my unsteady breathing under control; This was the place. I could feel it. Reaching my left fist in front of me, my eyes fluttered shut momentarily as I allowed my left arm to be overtaken with the familiar dark energy of my power. The chain connected to my pistol rattled in the open air before I allowed my arm to drop to my side, and stepped forwards.

It was oddly quiet outside of the building. I was sure that someone was around, because I could still feel several strong Reiatsus coming from within the building's walls. I took another deep breath, pressing my palm flat against the door and steeling myself for whatever might have been waiting for me on the other side. I swallowed thickly, gripping the door handle with my free hand. I held my breath and started to pull down on the handle- Only to have the door swing inwards as someone inside opened it more quickly than I could.

"What the hell!"

The pink haired girl from earlier was glaring at me haughtily from just inside of the building, her sharp magenta eyes staring me head to toe, but not seeming too surprised that I had shown up on their doorstep. The ramen man stood next to a table a little way behind her, a knowing sort of smirk marring his features as we locked eyes for several seconds. I was frozen- This was seriously _not_ going according to my master plan.

"Are ya gonna just stand there, or are you gonna come in?" the girl asked, sounding rather flustered by my lack of movement. Instead of answering, I lifted up my left arm, pointing my gun straight at her and glowering. Everyone else within the base tensed up immediately, and the ramen man pushed away from the table, now looking entirely serious about the situation at hand.

"Who is he?" I asked seriously. Briefly, I considered the fact that every single one of these people, right down to the tall, silent Latino boy in the corner, probably knew a hell of a lot more about my own power than I did. But they didn't know that I knew nothing about it- At least, I didn't _think_ they did. I was about ninety percent sure. And as long as I had the lying on my side, I felt confident I would be able to bullshit them into giving me the answers that I wanted. "Who's that suspender-wearing motherfucker you sent after Ishida and I?"

The group fidgeted, this apparently having been the very last thing they had been expecting. The ramen man stepped up towards Riruka, who was still glaring at me with those cold magenta eyes of hers, despite me having been pointing the barrel of a gun straight in between her eyes. He nodded and she huffed, stepping away from the door.

"Lower the gun, Shirosaki Horo-san," he said, his deep voice rumbling up from deep within his chest. I shook my head.

"Not till I get answers," I replied, though my arm lowered just a bit. "Who is he? I know you know," The man was silent for a moment, and the Latino boy stepped a little closer to me.

"If we explain, she will understand," he said slowly, looking out at my from under his shaggy brown hair. "If she understands she may want to help."

"Doubtful," I replied quickly, now directing my glare at the boy who had spoken. "That asshole ripped out my stitches and almost killed Ishida," At this, the Latino boy shifted uncomfortably.

"Is he alright?"

"Sure, but he can't move a whole lot." I said bitterly. I wasn't friends with the guy, but it sure seemed to work in my favor to act like I was. "If that's 'alright', then yeah, he's alright." The boy fell silent, pulling a cellphone out of his pocket and staring at the screen. I froze, thinking back to Orihime and Ichigo's conversation back at the hospital; I lowered my gun. "Are... Are you Chad?"

"I am," he said slowly, folding his phone closed and sticking it back in his pocket. "I'll have to apologize for not... Being there..."

"Well, I can't imagine that you'd get good cellphone service in this place," I muttered, mostly to myself, as I looked around the room. A tall woman wearing boots was standing next to another man with an eyepatch, both of them casting weary glances in my direction. A blonde boy in the corner didn't even seem to know what was going on, as his nose was buried in what looked to be a video game of some sort. The pink haired girl rolled her eyes and turned away from me, walking towards the bar and sitting on one of the stools.

"Good to see you've calmed down," the ramen man said, stepping back from the door and gesturing for me to come inside. The pink haired girl gaped.

"Uh, Ginjo, she just pointed a gun at us!" she yelled as I stepped over the threshold. "Are you stupid? Don't let her in!"

"She seems fine now," he muttered, not really seeming to care that the girl was still yelling. I looked around quickly, taking in the appearance of the ridiculously large room in which I was now standing. These people must have some serious cash on hand to have such a cool hideout, but I decided not to ask any questions. "Could I ask how you found us?"

"Oh, you know," I muttered absently, still busy taking in my new surroundings. "Ways..." The ramen man frowned and sat down on the leather couch in front of me.

"I see," he murmured. After a moment's pause, he continued. "Now, who were you asking about?"

"The man with the suspenders and the katana," I said swiftly, tearing my eyes away from the full bar on my right to look the ramen man dead in the eyes. "He's got the same kind of Reiatsu as you do. I figured that you'd know who he was."

"He's got a similar Reiatsu to you, too, you know." the pink haired girl said. "To all of us."

"We do know who he is," the man continued as if the girl hadn't spoken, and she frowned. "But we are not working with him." I nodded, accepting his words despite my initial suspicion. "So that's who you were running from earlier today." I nodded again, and the girl snorted.

"She ran?" she asked, glancing over at me in disbelief. "Why?"

"... It wasn't working out so well," I replied, meeting her eyes and glaring viciously. "Don't be a bitch."

"Hey, you pointed a gun at my face. I reserve the right to be a bitch to you,"

"Fair enough." I replied, shrugging. This seemed to satisfy her, though, as she hopped out of her stool and met my gaze once more.

"Dokugamine Riruka," she said.

"You already know my name," I said. Ginjo groaned, standing up from the couch and walking over towards the bar.

"I am Ginjo," he said, and I was silently thanking him for letting me call him something other than 'ramen man' now. "This is Jackie, Giriko... That's Yukio... And you already know about Chad," he listed, gesturing lazily in everyone's direction as he spoke. Some waved. Others just glared. Yukio still didn't seem to know what was going on. "We're just like you." I arched my eyebrows, coming to stand next to Riruka as I parted my lips to speak.

"'Just like me'," I repeated, my skepticism evident in my voice. "What are 'we', exactly?" Ginjo snickered, swirling his drink around in his glass slowly as he turned to face me, resting his elbows on the bar.

"You are... _We_ are... Fullbringers." he answered slowly.

I suddenly felt uncomfortable, like all eyes were looking nowhere else but me.

"Welcome to our Xctuion, Horo-san." Riruka said from next to me. "Or should I say, Miss Fullbringer number Seven."

* * *

><p><strong>Finally updated this thing! Thanks to everyone who reviewed- It's really great to be getting so much feedback on this, and it's especially nice to hear that everyone likes Horo's character so much! Don't forget to review on this chapter as well, and look out for the next one!<strong>


	5. Chapter 5: Just Ridiculous

...

* * *

><p><em>"I want to spend my whole life collecting things that I like and be smothered to death by them."<em>

_-Riruka Dokugamine_

* * *

><p><em>Where... Was I?<em>

_Police sirens filled my ears, and pain pounded through my head with every single noise it made. My bony back was pressed up roughly against the brick wall behind me. I was cold, but there was nothing that I could do about it. I shivered and hugged my body with my arms. It didn't help. The wound on my arm tingled and stung, and my eyes fell on the three enormous gashes that were clearly visible against my flesh. The blood had dried but it looked infected. I was in pain._

_Was I dying?_

_"Girl."_

_The voice frightened me and I jumped, but I made no attempt to run away. I didn't have the strength. I didn't have a reason. I heard someone else whisper to the man who had spoken, but I could only sense that one person in front of me. Or maybe, more accurately, the one _thing_. Somehow, I didn't think that this was a normal human. _

_"Sorry... But we'll need to take this."_

_Then the pain was gone._

* * *

><p>I gasped, sitting up in a flash, my wild black locks flying around my face. My brown eyes were wide and my breathing was strained. Gulping in a good amount of air, I glanced around my empty and dimly lit apartment, my eyes narrowing sadly.<p>

I had lied.

_Again_.

Perhaps that dream had happened to remind me that I was a liar. Orihime didn't know how I had _really _started out. I hadn't moved here. I'd always been here. The alley that the dream had brought back into my mind was all too familiar; It was where I had lived when I couldn't afford my own home. It was where I had almost died before I had pulled it all together and gotten a decent job. I narrowed my eyes still further, straining my memory in an attempt to think back, and remember the rest of my dream... I didn't remember that voice. Who the hell had _that_ been?

I got up, shaking away my nervousness with a shiver. I flinched when I slapped both sides of my face with my hands, but it succeeded in ridding my mind of trials past. I cast my eyes to the clock, which read five till eight. How had I managed to go to sleep so early? When my eyes moved away from the clock, they then fell on the Xcution business card that was now held to my mini fridge with a enormous and cheap magnet.

Ridiculous. That was what this was.

I had tacked down the members of this group... "Xcution", to get back at them for sending some sort of crazy stalker after both Ishida and I. I had been so certain that they were behind it- After all, carrying ramen around and cornering people in back alleys seemed to strongly insinuate guilt. Instead, I had somehow been coerced into joining their ragtag band of teenagers with Hollow powers.

As I sat in my new apartment, the empty rooms echoing with the silence, I thought back to the whole situation. Honestly, I didn't even remember saying 'Yes, I'll be in your group', but apparently saying that was completely unnecessary, considering it seemed that they had decided for themselves that I would be their newest member. I sighed, pursing my lips as I pulled my wavy black hair up into a bun on the top of my head. I didn't even know how I felt about them, yet. They had flat out refused to divulge any specifics on the man who had attacked me, yet they expected me to go along with their shenanigans. Now that I really thought about it, I wasn't even sure what they _did_, anyways. Hang out? Fight Hollows? Who knew.

"Horo-chan?"

A sudden knock from the door drew me out of my thoughts and I flinched slightly. For a moment I didn't recognize the voice, and it was only after the knock and call were repeated that I realized that it was none other than Orihime. Faster than I had meant to, I had scrambled up off of my floor and dashed towards my door, pulling it open swiftly to reveal the kind-eyed girl on the other side. I smiled, ignoring the fact that she was dressed up rather nicely while I saw wearing black sweatpants and a white tank top.

"Orihime!" I breathed, grinning broadly as my dark brown eyes met her lighter ones. Orihime smiled, tilting her head and shrugging innocently as I gestured for her to come inside. In her hands she held a covered dish. "What's that?"

"A casserole." she answered happily, removing her shoes and turning back to face me. "I hope I'm not intruding."

"Not at all!" I replied. "I'm just sorry that I don't have chairs..."

"Horo-chan, where _is_ all your stuff?" Orihime asked, peering around my apartment curiously. I frowned, taking the casserole from her hands and placing it on the bar. I flinched, my mind traveling back to my dream once again- To my _past_ once again. I brushed it off as quickly as possible, shaking my head and making a 'mm' noise under my breath.

"I didn't come with any."

"How are you affording this place?"

"I got a job when I moved here," I said, and Orihime seemed satisfied. "So why did you come?" Orihime sighed sadly to herself as I removed the cover to her casserole. I arched an eyebrow, looking at the food carefully- What was this supposed to be, again?

"I was going to ask Kurosaki-kun over for dinner," she began, pouting slightly and propping her face up on her fists while I dolled out equal portions of whatever strange meal Orihime had brought over. "But he said that he was busy... It was too much to eat alone. He's been acting so strangely lately, Horo-chan..."

"It's probably just the Ishida thing," I replied, taking a bite out of the food. It was probably the single weirdest thing I had ever tasted in my life, but I couldn't say that it was bad. "Ichigo seems like the kind of guy who would be really worried about friends." Orihime smiled as she chowed down on her dinner, and I made a face. She really did have an exotic palate if _this_ was the kind of food that she regularly enjoyed.

"Kurosaki-kun is always looking out for us." she whispered, and I smiled. "He's always been there to look out for us..." I paused, my fork inches away from my lips. I suddenly felt ridiculously awkward. Dropping my fork back onto my plate, I grabbed one of my chipped mugs from the cabinets and moved to the sink, reaching for the tap with my right hand. Then I froze.

_My hand was see through._

Despite myself, I screamed. I dropped the mug to the floor, the old cup shattering against the wood floor. Orihime gasped as I fell to the floor beside the broken clay mug, and even through my panic I inwardly cursed myself for destroying one of the few cups that I owned. My eyes were wide and I was shivering uncontrollably, my right hand hidden from my sight underneath my arm. I didn't want to look at it again- What if it was gone?

"Horo-chan?" Orihime's concerned voice broke through my babbling thoughts. "Horo-chan, what happened?"

I didn't answer. I breathed in and out, slowly and confidently, doing my best to calm myself down as best I could. Slowly, ever so slowly, I moved my hand out from under my left arm. My eyes were shut, and I chose to focus on Orihime's palm on the small of my back instead of the possibility that I might not have a right hand anymore. I cracked my eyes open, gazing in front of me; My hand was completely fine.

"What happened, Horo-chan?" Orihime whispered. I laughed.

"Sorry, I saw a cockroach- New apartment, you know, there's lots of pests still around," I murmured. My deep chocolate brown eyes still refused to leave my hand, which was still trembling from shock. I flexed my pale, thin fingers, squinting suspiciously at my hand when nothing out of the ordinary happened. What had that been? I was so sure that I had seen right through my hand; It was as if it had almost disappeared.

"Don't do that again, you scared me," Orihime muttered, though she was smiling, so I figured it was fine. "Did you get it?"

"Get what?"

"Th... The cockroaches?" Orihime replied, raising her eyebrows slightly at my reply.

"Oh... Right, yeah, I got it."

What the hell was happening to me?

* * *

><p>The next morning at school, I was hopelessly distracted. I was sure that anyone else in my position would have been, as well. After all, it's not every day that one of your appendages turns see through. I was half expecting for it to happen again, so I spent most of my morning attempting to concoct intricate lies to tell if anyone saw something suspicious.<p>

"Ah... I got nothin'," I muttered to myself, hugging my schoolbag closer to my chest and scowling heavily.

"What don't you have?"

I jumped, holding back the small 'eep' noise that was threatening to escape from between my lips. Whirling around swiftly, I was surprised to see none other than Ichigo standing behind me. He was scowling more than I was, and was carrying his bag in his usual devil-may-care way over his shoulder, his free hand placed in his pants pocket lazily. His light brown eyes were looking at me curiously, and my frown deepened.

"The fortune I was supposed to inherit from my grandmother," I snapped, not even bothering to make my lies sound believable. "Turns out it was a false alarm, she was only dead for a few minutes."

"Bullshit."

"Ya think?"

Ichigo's scowl deepened as I glared up at him heatedly, not in any sort of mood to take his crap. Not this morning. Not right now. It was then, in the middle of whatever fucked up staring contest we were currently participating in, that I felt it. I felt several familiar Reiatsus lingering on him. It took me some time, and the more I concentrated on his aura, the more weirded out he looked. Then I pinpointed them- I knew _exactly_ where he'd been.

"You've been to see the Fullbringers!"

"What? No- Wait-"

"J'accuse!" I yelled sarcastically, prodding him roughly in the chest with my pointer finger. "I'm pretty good at picking up Spiritual Pressure, you can't fool me." The carrot top paused, taking my words into consideration before finally choosing to fess up. He took his free hand out of his pocket, holding it up as if surrendering.

"Fine, you caught me." he replied. For a moment I was allowed to smile triumphantly, but the moment was short-lived, at best, as it now seemed to be _his_ turn to grill me. "Question is, how'd _you_ know."

"Their Reiatsu, I felt-"

"And you know what their Reiatsu feels like... How?" It was only after a very long pause that I replied.

"Damn."

"Thought so."

"Well, so what, you went to see them, too!" I said, waving my hands frantically in his direction. This was _not_ going according to plan. "And your buddy Chad was in on it, as well. What's up with that?"

"Wish I knew," Ichigo sighed. We had begun walking to class once again, though the bell had wrung a solid seven minutes ago. "Why'd you go?"

"I wanted to know about that suspenders-wearing guy that attacked Ishida and I." I replied, meeting his eyes briefly before blushing and looking away. My eyes widened- Wait, _why_ _the hell_ was I blushing? I sincerely hoped that he hadn't noticed, because that would just be too embarrassing to bear. "But then they got all stingy with their facts and now I'm 'Miss Fullbringer Seven'."

"_What?_" Ichigo breathed, stopping in his tracks. I paused, too, glancing over my shoulder with curiosity. He was frowning again, though the act was not unusual for the usually crabby carrot top. "You're a member? How?"

"I... You know, powers..."

"Powers?"

"Of persuasion." I continued, nodding vigorously. "They have really good powers of persuasion, is what I meant."

"You can't just be a member, you idiot, I know who they are." he replied, narrowing his eyes in my direction. "So that gun that you had the other day was a Fullbring?"

"... Yeah, sure." I answered finally. With that I turned away from him, glancing to my right to find that we were standing just outside of our classroom. "Why did you join them, anyways? You don't have powers," My eyes narrowed in suspicion when he flinched at my words- Powers must be a touchy subject for him. My mind suddenly traveled back to my brief conversation with his younger sister. 'Protect him', she had said. He didn't have any powers... Did he?

"... They're helping me get my powers back." he said finally. I raised my eyebrows. So he had had powers? "They want me to get my Shinigami powers so they can get rid of their Fullbrings."

"Huh. I'd never wanna get rid of mine," I mused, tapping my chin thoughtfully. Ichigo groaned and stretched his arms behind his head. His joints cracked as he moved, and I shivered. That sound had always bothered me. In my mind's eye, I suddenly saw a long white mask shatter in midair, surrounded by only darkness. The noise was almost the same...

"-Ey! Hey, Horo," I blinked, realizing suddenly that I had been drifting off. Ichigo's hand was waving back and forth across my eyes, and I shook my head quickly. What had that mask been? I had never seen anything like it before... White and red, with golden eyes... No, I had definitely never seen anything like _that_ before.

"Sorry about that," I muttered as we entered our classroom at long last.

* * *

><p>"Why were you and Kurosaki-kun late to class this morning?"<p>

Had I been drinking something at the time, I probably would have done a spit-take of magnificent proportions. Glancing to my left, I met Orihime's eyes, which were calm but no less suspicious than her voice was. Currently, we were walking slowly back to our apartment complex. Her light brown eyes were still fixed on me, and got more and more suspicious the longer I kept silent.

"W... We were talking." It sounded more like a question than an answer, but what could I do? I didn't know what she wanted from me, so I had figured that testing the waters would be best. Boy, was I ever wrong.

"Are you lying to me like usual?" Orihime replied, her eyes narrowing dangerously. My own eyes widened in response to her verbal slap to the face, and it was all I could do to keep from biting her head off then and there. If Orihime was so worried about something like that, she should go ahead and make some sort of move on her beloved _Kurosaki-kun_. I kept this thought to myself, however, not wanting to spoil whatever our relationship was at the moment.

"I'm not, Orihime, we were just talking." I reassured her. A sudden, shooting pain made its way through my body, and I flinched. I chose to ignore it, however, instead choosing to focus on looking as legitimate as possible to Orihime. The pain continued to ebb in and out... What the hell was it?

"What about?"

"Power." I replied swiftly. Orihime lifted up a single eyebrow curiously, and I back-peddled. "... Bills. Power bills. They've been taking, like, my whole paycheck lately." I lied easily. For a long while Orihime stayed silent, her calm brown eyes watching me as we took the stairs up to the second floor one at a time.

"I see." she said finally, a relieved smile spreading over her face. "I'm glad."

"I'm not, I'm broke." I laughed, earning myself a broad smile from my brown haired companion. Mentally, I let out a sigh of relief. I had never seen Orihime angry, but it seemed that my usual lies were not sitting well with her at all. I had never once thought that my compulsion to lie was endearing- Not in the slightest. But I could sense that Orihime was quickly getting fed up with it. At last we came to the doorway of her apartment.

"Tea?" she asked casually, her voice returning once again to its usual softness. A small smile tugged at my lips as I nodded, and Orihime promptly began to dig through her bag. I suddenly realized that the throbbing pain within my body had finally subsided, but I didn't have much time to dwell on it; It was then that I sensed it- A third presence with us. One that I did not recognize.

"You're Inoue-san, yes?" I whipped around as quickly as possible, coming face to face with the unknown person. "Pardon me, but would you mind dying here?" It was a boy, no older than Orihime or I, by the looks of things. Without thinking I held out my right fist, preparing to allow the warm sensation of my Fullbring to once again overtake my entire arm. The boy had taken a running leap at us, but no sooner had Orihime turned around, he backed off, falling to the ground in a crumpled heap. I made a face.

"You've gotta be friggin' kidding me." I mumbled, glowering in the boy's direction as Orihime bent down to get a better look.

"Are... Are you okay?" she asked cautiously, raising her voice so that he could hear her without her getting any closer. I scoffed, placing my hands on my hips and glaring down at the boy in a way that would have probably looked pretentious to outsiders.

"What does it matter? That asshole just tried to kick you in the back?" Orihime let out a small 'eep' at my words, and no sooner had I said it, the boy got up again. His face was flushed, and he seemed to be trying his best to look anywhere but at Orihime. I rolled my eyes. What was the deal with adolescent boys and boobs?

"Oooooahhh!" he growled, still not looking at Orihime directly. "Get ready girl! I, Shishigawara Moe-san, am here to collect your head!"

"My... My head?" Orihime repeated, still looking completely out of it. I rolled my eyes again. These two as a pair were just ridiculous.

"Huh? Y-you know, your head! Your life!" Moe said, thrown by the fact that Orihime was too much of an airhead to know what it meant. My scowl deepened, but I removed my hands from my hips, balling them into fists. "By collect your head I mean I'm here to kill your ass! Just like that bastard four-eyed friend of yours!"

"Are... You the one who attacked Ishida-kun?"

"He isn't." I answered, my eyes narrowing as I studied our attacker carefully. "It was the same guy who attacked me- And this isn't him." For a moment, it looked as if Orihime was going to bombard me with questions- After all, I had yet to explain to her how a random guy in suspenders had tried to dice me up with a katana a few days ago. She held back, though, apparently able to read the atmosphere of the situation. Now was, by no means, the time for questions. "So, what, are you like that guy's cronie? Here to do his dirty work?"

"You two got hot faces, but you talk some serious shit!" he jeered. My fists tightened even more, and I winced as my fingernails dug into my flesh. Something about this guy was seriously starting to rub me the wrong way; Maybe it was the mohawk. That was just ridiculous. "You're gonna have to beat that info outta me! C'mon, beat me!"

"Now, that's enough."

I froze. I was completely frozen. I recognized this voice, and I recognized this Reiatsu, as much a I wished that I didn't. Memories of the tears I had shed after his attack came back to the forefront of my mind from where I had tucked them away deep inside of my conscious mind. Chills broke out all over my body, and I shivered as goosebumps appeared on my pale skin that had nothing to do with the temperature. It was warm outside. It was this Reiatsu that was making me feel cold.

"_You._" I whispered. I could almost hear him smirk.

"Yes. Me." he replied. I heard the click of his shoes as he took a step closer. "It's nice to see you again, Shirosaki Horo-san. But you won't be getting away from me. Not this time." I shivered.

Just ridiculous... Why wasn't I see through _now?_

* * *

><p><strong>Finally updated! A little more about Horo is revealed here, as well as a few small, small hints about just who she really is. <strong>Thanks for all past reviews, and please don't forget to tell me what you think of this chapter! <strong>**


	6. Chapter 6: It's Official

...

* * *

><p><em>"Look closely; These 'Dirty Boots' are gonna get messy."<em>

_-Jackie Tristen_

* * *

><p>The situation had gone from bad to worse faster than I could say "well damn". To be perfectly honest, I really should have seen something like this coming. I mean, when a stalker shows up and attacks you, I should have guessed that he wouldn't have given up just because I had managed to outrun him that <em>one<em> time. I had only barely managed that, and even I wasn't sure just what would have happened to me had I not accidentally run into Ichigo just past the Urahara Shop. Honesty had never been one of my strong suits, but the fact of the matter was that this chance second meeting of ours was more than embarrassing; I had all but fled with my tail tucked between my legs like a frightened puppy the last time we had met.

Scratch that; I had run screaming like a puppy scared shitless.

"Who... Are you?"

It was Orihime who had spoken, and to be frank, I was surprised the jumpy little boy with the mohawk hadn't gotten bored and attacked us already. For some reason, he seemed perfectly content to watch our exchange with suspenders-man, if not a little frightened of suspenders-man himself. I pursed my lips, balling my hands into fists just out of the man's line of vision; This was going to get messy. I could smell it.

"Shuukuro Tsukishima," suspenders-man answered softly, his dark eyes traveling slowly between Orihime and I like a panther stalking its prey. I doubt this comparison requires any explanation whatsoever- We were clearly the prey.

"Tsukishima-san!" the mohawk boy cried, before either Orihime or I had so much as a chance to get a word out. I scowled. I had just thought of something really witty to say, but now he had made me forget it. How typical. "There was no need for you to come all the way out here! I'll take care of her- O-of them! There's no need for you to stain your hands!"

"I'd wager his hands are _pretty_ stained already," I mumbled, mostly to myself, though I didn't miss the glare shot in my direction from the boy with the mohawk. Did I mention that his hair made him look like a really angry cockatiel? Because it really did.

"... Yes..." Tsukishima began. The boy seemed to have other ideas, however, as he cut him off by jumping in between Orihime and I before he could continue.

"Okay! So come on, woman!" he shouted with gusto, his finger shaking slightly as he pointed at both me and Orihime with either hand. "I'm gonna kill you!"

"Would it be rude if I confessed that I'm not scared of you in the slightest?" I asked, arching an eyebrow and unclenching my fists, placing my hands on my hips instead. I wasn't that tall of a person to begin with, but this kid made me look like a giant, not to mention that my hair had to be like ten times better than his was, style-wise, and I had air-dried it this morning.

"No talking! I'm gonna kill the bo-"

"Shishigawara-kun," Tsukishima interrupted, his face calm but his voice obviously threatening.

"What?"

"Go home."

"What are you saying?" he shouted, not turning away from Orihime as he spoke. "As your underling, I cannot turn back here! I'm happy that you care about me, but your reputation is more important than my life!" I frowned. Now this was really taking a turn for the gay. Before I could voice my oh-so-witty remarks on this, however, I was interrupted as Tsukishima snapped the book that he had been holding shut. The noise was small, but loud enough to silence all three of us. Somehow, I got the feeling that the noise was more than just a book being closed; Mohawk-kid looked completely mortified.

"Let me ask you something, Shishigawara-kun..." Tsukishima began.

His eyes were locked only on me, something that looked like interest brewing deep within them. I honestly didn't know what he meant by it, but I could make a pretty accurate guess, I was sure. He wanted to see my power again. He wanted to know what Xcution's newest member could do, what sort of tricks she had up her sleeve. My scowl deepened; He knew that he was going to get exactly what he wanted whether I liked it or not.

"I said that you 'didn't need to do anything'... Didn't I?"

"Y... Yes."

"Then..." the dark haired man continued. I watched cautiously as he reached for the bookmark that held his place in the pages of his book. One swift motion, and the slip of paper was removed from its pages, cutting through the air like a sword as he brought it swiftly to his side. "Why are you still here?"

"I... I want to be more useful to you!" Despite myself, I felt bad. This kid was like a lost puppy, and something told me that this _Tsukishima_ character wasn't really a dog person.

"Ah... Now I forget what page I was on..." he muttered, tapping his chin with his bookmark and frowning with mock disappointment. "That's a problem... Hey, Shishigawara-kun..." My eyes widened, watching as that completely normal-looking bookmark of his transformed into a long katana. The same katana that had nearly sliced me in two only a few days ago. I reacted instinctively, even if it wasn't the best course of action. "You mind ta-"

"Put down the sword," I muttered, gritting my teeth as I stepped in front of the kid with the mohawk. His name was too long to say, even in my head. My fists were crossed, and I hope that he could understand the gravity of the situation. Using both of my guns at once could be fatal, even to a human. It certainly worked with Hollows. "Leave."

"Maybe you should leave." Tsukishima suggested smugly, lifting his katana just a little higher. He was trying to intimidate me, and by god was it working.

"We live here," I replied quickly, ignoring the growing lump within my throat, and praying to God or Karma or Buddha or whatever that I didn't choke up right then and there. "What's your excuse?"

"Horo-chan," Orihime whispered, eyeing Tsukishima's katana almost fearfully. "Is that... Is that a Zanpakuto?"

"A what?" I muttered, taking my eyes off of Tsukishima for only a second. Somehow, the word seemed to strike a chord deep within my consciousness, though I hadn't the slightest idea what it meant. A... Zanpakuto? "Orihime, what're you-"

A sudden rush of air brushed against my ear as I narrowly dodged a strike from Tsukishima's katana; Orihime had provided him with an opening, and he had taken it. That was all I needed to justify the use of my Fullbring; The very next second, Tsukishima's calm smirk had contorted slightly, now facing the harsh reality of having twin silver pistols aimed straight for his precious face.

"I'm assuming you'd like to keep your face," I murmured darkly, keeping my brown eyes trained on him, despite Orihime's incessant stammering from next to me. I absolutely refused to pay her any mind. I couldn't fuck this up- Not this time. "I'm not gonna lie, you aren't bad looking. I'd hate to ruin that for you,"

Before I could react, he had dodged to the right, taking a swipe at my side with the tip of his katana. I managed to step out of the way just in time, the chains attached to my pistols rattling as I aimed my left arm right at his face, and pulled the trigger. A small blast of red and black energy emerged from the barrel, missing his nose by inches and singeing Shishigawara's pant leg. The boy yelped, jumping backwards and pressing his back against Orihime's door as I charged straight for Tsukishima, who was now bouncing on the balls of his feet, anticipating my every move.

"You're awfully slow," Tsukishima muttered, arching an eyebrow as I shot the pistol in my right hand, which released a deep blue light. I rarely used my right pistol- Blue did not appeal to me as much as black did. "Why don't you Bring the ground?"

"Do what to the ground?" I asked through clenched teeth. I didn't give him the satisfaction of answering, however, and instead aimed another shot with my left hand, this time hitting him squarely in the shoulder. He cried out, clutching the bleeding and smoking wound on his shoulder. I smiled triumphantly, sighing as I allowed the dark energy on my arms to dissipate, thinking that he would now back off. I was wrong.

"Horo-chan!" Orihime cried, but it was too late. It was as if I was watching the whole thing in slow motion. Tsukishima had been there, clutching his injured shoulder desperately, and then it was as if he had just sucked it up; Pulled himself together to get one up on me, _again._ There was nothing I could do. Whatever "Bringing" the ground meant, he had done it, and he was behind me and beside Orihime faster than I could say 'Holy Shit'. I whipped my head around, my ebony waves flying into my eyes, which were wide with surprise and fear as I watched Tsukishima cut straight through my only friend in this whole town.

"Orihime, _no!"_ I yelled, hot tears springing up in the corners of my eyes as I reached for her. He had cut straight through her- And I meant _all_ the way through her. And then he was gone- Poof, just like that.

Orihime slumped towards the ground, landing on her knees. Not even bothering to think, I rushed forwards, placing my hands on Orihime's shoulders in a desperate attempt to observe whatever damage had been done to her body. My eyes widened; She was fine. Orihime was more than fine. There was no blood, her skin and clothes were completely cut-free. Nothing at all seemed out of the ordinary...

"O... Orihime-chan...?" I whispered, still astonished by her apparently instantaneous recovery. "Are you... Are you alright?" Before Orihime had a chance to speak, we were interrupted by a sudden outburst just behind us. It all happened so suddenly that I jumped, shaking Orihime in the process, though she looked just as surprised as I did.

"Inoue!" Ichigo called out, stopping just short of where Orihime and I were still crouched. I was positive that my eyes were still as wide as saucers, but that didn't really seem to matter, just then. I still wasn't at all sure what had happened... I had been so sure that Orihime had been sliced in half... "Horo, what happened?"

"Ah... Ichigo..." I murmured, my eyes not leaving Orihime as I spoke. "Chad, too...? What are you guys doing here?"

"Why?" Ichigo repeated, looking me as if I were stupid. I frowned. I'd be sure to beat him up for that later, when I wasn't feeling like I was trapped in a bad episode of The Twilight Zone. "Chad felt your Reiatsus acting funny,"

"Are you okay?" Chad's voice came out gravely, rumbling deep within his chest as he spoke. It was oddly calming, but I still felt as though Tsukishima was going to jump out at any given moment. "It wasn't a normal vibration. What happened, Inoue?"

"Eh? R-really, nothing happened, though!" Orihime chirped. She looked nervous, I could tell. Unlike me, Orihime was not blessed with a solid poker face; Ichigo and Chad looked ten times more suspicious than they had been upon their arrival. "Maybe it was because my stomach was hurting a little." I almost burst out laughing. It was official: Orihime was a horrible, horrible liar.

"That can't be. I felt another Reiatsu here until just a minute ago." Chad continued, determined to get the answers he wanted. "Who was that?"

"Th... That must have just been Horo-chan!" Orihime said. I froze, giving her a look.

"But-"

"Horo-chan is really good at Reiatsu control. Maybe you just can't feel it because she's masking it," Chad and Ichigo exchanged glances before turning to me. I simply shrugged; I was still to shell-shocked from the previous events to either confirm or deny Orihime's tales. "Then my stomach started to hurt! Sorry for worrying you. I'll tell you if something does happen, okay? If something happens to you two, be sure to tell me, too!"

Chad and Ichigo were silent for a while, watching as Orihime removed her keys from her bag and opened her apartment door. I waited, watching as she shut the door behind her and locked all three of us out. I stayed silent; I had no clue what to say or what to do. I wasn't even sure if I actually wanted to lie my way out of this situation. Should I tell Ichigo the truth...? But Orihime had denied everything so vehemently... I didn't understand why she didn't want Ichigo to know what had happened. I sighed, turning to stare at Ichigo's back as both he and Chad vanished around the corner of the apartment complex.

_'Things certainly are getting interesting...'_

I jumped, startled as the voice met my ears. Whipping around, my dark eyes traveled up and down the length of the hallway just outside of Orihime's apartment. I saw no one. I felt no one. Giving up, I decided to take my chances and call out.

"Who's there?" I yelled. My voice carried on the open air surrounding me, but no such voice answered me. All was still and quiet. I was completely alone. "... Hello?"

It was official. I was going insane.

* * *

><p>"It's not working."<p>

The final bell that signaled the end of the school day had wrung at last. Ichigo had been in a fowl mood the entire day, and to say the least it had made the entirety of it rather unpleasant for the rest of us. I sighed, shifting my gaze over towards him as he continued to rant about his many failures over the last several days.

We had been "official" members of Xcution for at least a week and half, now, and still Ichigo had made little to no progress on his own Fullbring. From what I had heard from Riruka and the others, each time he tried his Fullbring out, it would fizzle and appear for barely a millisecond before vanishing altogether, leaving him exhausted and usually causing him to pass out after several minutes. To be frank, I was a little pleased with myself for having mastered my own powers so completely, when not even Ichigo could use his Fullbring to its full potential.

"What, your Fullbring?"

"What else would I be talking about?" Ichigo answered, his tone short and snippy. I rolled my eyes. If he was a girl, I would have guessed that he was having a serious case of PMS.

"Dunno, something equally stupid and or unimportant." I retorted.

Ignoring the heated glare from the carrot-top beside of me, I stood up, scraping the feet of my chair against the tile floors of the classroom. Grabbing my schoolbag, I stuffed the last of my books and pencils into it before zipping it up and making my way towards the doors to the classroom. Realizing that Ichigo was hot on my tail I paused, glancing over my shoulder to glare at him.

"What?"

"Help me," he instructed. My glare increased tenfold.

"Excuse me?"

"Help me," he repeated, and this time I had to turn all the way around to make sure he was serious. He definitely looked serious. "Urahara suggested that I get someone who I'm closer to to help me... But Chad and Orihime only got their powers when I got mine. You've had yours since you can remember, right?"

"I... Yeah, I guess so..."

"So, help me."

"Sorry, can't." I replied at last, turning on my heel and exiting the classroom. From behind me I could hear Ichigo splutter in protest before following me into the hall.

"Why?" he asked, his tone becoming short and rather icy. If he kept that attitude up I'd never be helping him with anything, ever.

"Because... I have an intervention... For... My realtor."

"Uh-huh." Ichigo replied, furrowing his eyebrows and glowering down at me as we continued to walk towards the doors of the school. "And this wouldn't happen to be some sort of horrible lie to get out of doing me this one favor, would it?"

"Absolutely not." I said swiftly, not missing a beat as I pushed the doors to the school open with one hand. "My realtor's drinking habits are as much my problem as they are hers."

"Oh, you're so kind."

"Thanks, I get that a lot."

"Do you?"

"I do."

"Right,"

With that the two of us lapsed back into another lengthy silence, our steps almost in synch as we marched down the sidewalk. I could feel Ichigo's eyes on me, and despite myself I could feel my cheeks heat up. He had to _stop_ looking at me! After several more minutes I stopped in my tracks, finally having had enough of his incessant staring. Ichigo backed up a ways, surprised by my outraged expression.

"Stop that." I growled, narrowing my chocolate brown eyes in his direction.

"Stop what?"

"_Staring_." I replied. I folded my arms across my chest, a look of finality clouding my features. "Just stop. Stop looking at me."

"Then help me."

"Help you what?" I sighed, exasperation and annoyance getting the better of me. "Just stop staring, I'll help you, okay?"

"My staring really bothers you that much?"

"Yes!"

"Why?"

"I don't know!" I roared. I noses were now inches apart, and I suddenly froze upon realizing our now tantalizingly close proximities. This had not been the plan; Not at all. "I ju... I just don't... I don't like you staring, alright?" Before Ichigo could say another word I had backed as far away as possible, putting as much distance between him and myself as I could. My face felt hot and my palms were sweaty; I could only hope that Ichigo didn't notice.

"Alright, then." he said, ignoring my flustered expression and turning away. "Follow me."

"Where are we going?" I asked softly, trotting along behind him, the soles of my shoes padding softly against the blacktop on the street.

"To the Xcution base," he replied nonchalantly. I gulped. I wasn't so sure that we were allowed there on our own, but I kept my mouth shut.

"What are we doing?"

"You're going to teach me how to use my Fullbring." I blanched.

It was official. I was in way over my head.

* * *

><p><strong>Finally updated this thing! Thanks for being patient, readers!<strong>

**This chapter marks the beginning of a turning point in the story- Next chapter I'm hoping to make Horo's situation a little more clear and a little more crazy! For a hint, next chapter catches up to the short prologue in chapter one! This chapter is simply to bridge the gap between last chapter and the climactic scenes in the next chapter; That's where this story will really start to get interesting!**

**In this chapter, I also hint that Horo is starting to develop some feelings other than frustration towards Ichigo- Those will progress as the story moves along. She also starts to hear voices. Just who that voice is, you'll find out later!**

**As to any of my readers that also read my story Binda Blinda, there is now a sequel up, which can be accessed through my profile! It is called Back in Black, and is an adaptation of the anime-only Invading Army filler arc! If you liked Binda Blinda, you should check it out and let me know what you think of it!**

**Thanks to all who reviewed the last chapter, and be sure to leave any questions or comments in a review!**


	7. Chapter 7: Making Me Nervous

..

* * *

><p>"<em>I've never formed a real connection with anyone, Fullbring or no Fullbring.<em>"

_-Yukio Hans Vorarlberna_

* * *

><p>I had never been a risk-taker; I preferred to just keep to myself, keep out of other people's problems... I had enough of her own to deal with. To my dismay, however, ever since I had met the ragtag team of Karakura High students, it seemed that their problems were swiftly becoming my own problems. Surprisingly, I found that I didn't mind it so much, though I could feel the extra stress getting to me. Orihime had been acting strangely ever since our encounter with Tsukishima, and now I was tagging along with Ichigo, and for what? To help him discover his Fullbring? Just what was in it for me?<p>

Absolutely nothing.

The air was muggy, clinging to my skin and making my clothes feel as if they were wet and clinging to my body. I shifted uncomfortably, my long ebony locks drooping in the humidity. I fiddled with the dark tendrils; Ichigo glanced back at me as they walked up the stairs towards the Xcution base, and I ceased messing with my hair immediately. It's not like I cared what I looked like around Ichigo. The orange-haired boy stopped as he reached the door, looking back at me as I, too, climbed to the top of the stairs. I paused, as well, my deep brown eyes meeting his for a moment as we both remained silent.

"Well?" he said.

"Well, what?" I asked, folding my arms and leaning up against the railing next to the stairs. Ichigo glowered. "Did you expect there to be some kind of secret password to get in that only Xcution members like myself know?" I asked sarcastically. "Sorry to disappoint, but if there is, I don't know it."

"Actually, I was thinking more along the lines of a key." he deadpanned. I shrugged.

"Whoops, don't have that, either." I replied. Ichigo 'tch'ed in his throat, pointing a single finger at my school bag.

"Then what the hell are those?" he asked, jabbing his finger in the direction of the gleaming silver keyring that dangled from my schoolbag. I pursed my lips. _Oops._

"They're keys to my safety deposit box," I said.

"All five of them?"

"I've got a lot of stuff,"

Before I could protest, Ichigo had reached out and snatched my bag from my shoulder, lifting the keys to the lock on the Xcution base. I grumbled audibly within my throat, crossing my arms and bending my back over the railing slightly, stretching to relieve my annoyance. I really, _really_ didn't feel like being here or doing this right now. My dark brown eyes blinked up at the sky, Ichigo's curses fading in and out of my ears as he swore each time one of my keys didn't work. The sky was a pleasant shade of pink, now, getting darker as it stretched towards the skyline and finally turning crimson before the buildings of Karakura Town overtook the skyline. I continued to stare at the sky, unable to shake the feeling that I really shouldn't be here, with Ichigo... I couldn't shake the feeling in my gut that something wasn't right.

"Finally!"

Ichigo's voice snapped me back to reality, and I straightened my back just as he opened the door and thrust my schoolbag back in my direction. I frowned but I took it, sighing as I followed him into the dark room that was the Xcution hideout. It was empty, quiet, and I guessed that the whole gang was out for the night. I didn't know what they could be doing- certainly not hanging out with each other. I knew all too well that the different members of Xcution actually did not mesh well together.

"Where is everyone?" Ichigo murmured, his eyes sweeping across the empty bar as he walked through the Xcution base. "It's not that late,"

"They're at a party," I replied. "Is it awkward that you weren't invited?"

Ichigo turned and looked at me, rolling his eyes as he did so. Either he was getting a whole lot better at picking up on when I was lying, or I was getting a lot worse at lying. Not bothering to say anything else, I sauntered across the room, setting my schoolbag down on one of the few cushy armchairs that dotted the room as I did so. Ichigo followed me with his eyes as I made my way towards a door in the back, which I opened, the hinges giving out a loud creak as I peeled it open.

"Roof." I explained simply, pointing through the door and meeting Ichigo's eyes briefly.

Neither of us said anything as we ascended the stairs to the roof of the Xcution base; I was way too nervous to say anything. There was a lump in my throat the size of a grapefruit, so I couldn't have said anything coherent even if I'd wanted to. Was it just being alone with Ichigo that was making me so nervous? Or was there something else, as well? At this point I couldn't tell. The muggy night air greeted our faces as we made our way onto the roof, and I once again began to feel self-conscious about my limp hair. I blinked, allowing my dark brown eyes to adjust to the different lighting of the outdoors. Ichigo passed me as I paused at the top of the stairs, making his way to the middle of the roof before turning to face me. He wore a stoney expression, and determination blazed in his eyes.

"So, what now?"

I made a face.

"What now?" I repeated, placing my hands on my hips and frowning deeply. "Uh, excuse me, you're the one who made _me_ come here. I just tagged along. This was all your idea, remember?"

"Just tell me how you do it,"

"Do what?"

"Your Fullbring!" he replied, his tone exasperated. "You've been doing it for as long as you can remember, right?"

"Well, yeah," I replied, shrugging as if it were no big deal.

"Then, how do you do it?" Ichigo asked, throwing his hands up into the air. "Just tell me how!"

"I don't think about it like that!" I replied. "There's not a process I go through every time that I use it, I just _do!_"

The determination in Ichigo's eyes flickered, but didn't disappear entirely. He pursed his lips, stuffing his fists in his pockets and lowering his eyes to the ground. I could tell that he was thinking, about what, I wasn't too sure. He was quiet for a very long time, and the only thing that was left to fill the silence was our breathing, which eventually began to synch. At last he spoke, raising his eyes to look at me.

"Please, Horo," he said at last. "Just think about it. What happens, when a Hollow attacks?" I thought about it for a few seconds, pursing my lips in contemplation. I really had never thought about it before, but I supposed that the idea behind it all was fairly simple.

"Well I guess I just push all of my power- My Reiatsu- towards the thing that I chose to manifest my powers in." I said at last, speaking slowly so that I could make myself clear. I held out my fists, revealing my twin black cross tattoos to Ichigo. "I just channel all of my power into what allows me to manifest my 'Fullbring'. It's easy," Ichigo snorted. "It really is. Is there something special to you? Something that could help you channel your Fullbring?"

Upon saying this, Ichigo's expression brightened immediately. He began to furiously dig in his pockets, looking for something. His expression had turned to one of excitement, and at last he withdrew his hand from his pocket, holding a small object within his fingers. I blinked, then squinted my eyes, trying to get a better look at the object clenched in his fingers. For whatever reason, my eyes widened in surprise and my heart rate increased, my nervousness increasing exponentially.

"So," he began, looking down at the hexagonal badge that he held in his fingers. "I'll just concentrate my power into my Substitute Shinigami badge..." He seemed to be talking to himself more than anyone else, his eyes no longer looking at me, but at his badge. I didn't blink, I didn't move, I was suddenly afraid, and I didn't know why.

I could feel what little Reiatsu he had increase, become more solid and concentrated as he glared at the badge held in his fist. Goosebumps erupted across my skin, and I gulped in as much air as I could. It was suddenly becoming very difficult to breathe, and I could feel my heartbeat in my throat. What was wrong with me?

"Ichigo..." My voice came out raspy and echoed, like I was speaking through some sort of weirdly warped intercom system.

Ichigo simply continued to focus on his Substitute Shinigami badge, not caring that the more he allowed the dark energy to surround it, the more pain I felt. I couldn't breathe anymore, and at this point I'd stopped trying. It was a pain that I couldn't even begin to define or explain- It was pain without reason.

"Just a little more," he said through his teeth, growling under the strain of producing his Fullbring for the first time. He couldn't even begin to grasp just how dangerous this was- It was only me and him, together, no other Fullbringers to protect him from himself. To protect _me_ from himself.

"Ichigo-"

"I've almost got it!" he persisted. His eyebrows knit together in concentration as the four prongs of dark energy elongated, fading in an out like a dying lightbulb as the energy struggled to surround its host. It almost resembled a Swastika, but I didn't have very much time to ponder such things. "I got it, Horo." he said at last, breathing in a sigh of relief as the black energy continued to grow. "I got-"

"Ichigo, stop it!"

And then my body disappeared all together, along with my voice, though I could still hear it carry over the rooftops of Karakura Town.

* * *

><p>I blinked.<p>

The pain was gone, at least. I stared upwards, and above me I could see a bright blue sky, pristine white clouds floating across it slowly... But in an unnatural sort of way. Clouds didn't usually move that way. I groaned in my throat as I pushed my body upwards, closing my eyes briefly and rubbing the back of my head. It was as if I had fallen a very long way, and I flinched as I stretched my back, cracking it slightly to relieve the uncomfortable pressure. Then, I opened my eyes.

"Wait a minute..." I whispered, glancing around. I was surrounded by numerous tall buildings. They seemed almost never ending, and I couldn't even tell which way they were facing. Right, left, top, bottom... Direction seemed to lose all of its meaning here. I wasn't sure where I was, or how I'd gotten there. Where had Ichigo gone? I was sure that I had been with him only a few minutes ago... So where had he gone?

"I was wondering when you would arrive,"

The voice startled me, but I didn't let it show. I did my best to remain motionless, not allowing the fear to show in my eyes as I turned towards the direction from which the voice had come. It was deep, gravely, but oddly comforting. It was almost as if I had known the voice for as long as I could remember, but I couldn't remember how. The person to whom the voice belonged was completely unrecognizable to me.

He was tall, dark, definitely not handsome. Course facial hair was barely visible on parts of his chin, and his eyes were covered by a pair of clear glasses. His dark brown hair was long, shifting in the slight breeze that blew between the buildings. A dark cloak covered the rest of his body, and the fabric almost seemed to move of its own accord. His pale skin glistened in the bright light that shone down from the clear sky.

"Who are you?" I whispered, my dark brown eyes meeting the man's.

_"Who are _we_ is more like it,_" said a second voice. This time, it was harder for me to pretend that I wasn't afraid. The second voice was not like the first. I didn't recognize it. It was warped and twisted, sounding unnatural and out of place. It made me uneasy. From behind the tall man in front of me, a second figure emerged, almost seeming to morph out of the first man's body before coming to stand next to him. The second person looked just like Ichigo, except for the face that he was completely white, excluding his eyes, which were black. They board into me in a way that I didn't like at all, seeming to see into my very soul.

"Who... Who are you?" I repeated, my voice now barely audible despite the silence. The white man snickered.

"Don't you already know?" he asked snidely. I shook my head no. "This," he began, gesturing to the man on his left. "Is Zangetsu. And you and I are basically a part of him."

* * *

><p><strong>Please review and let me know what you think!<strong>


End file.
